Dark Moisture

 Song 719: This week the playlist features Black Water by The Doobie Brothers, written by Patrick Simmons, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the early spring of 1975 started to unfold, this aquatic anthem hit the top of the charts. I had found an affordable place to live in south Evanston, only a few blocks from the Lake Michigan beach, and sometimes when driving in my neighborhood, i got to hear the song on the radio while also seeing a part of the lake nearby, although the waves from that body of water had a turquoise tone, not an inky one. I enjoyed the tune's lyric flow, and I had a vague thought about someday crafting a similar message about a dark tide. What I ended up doing, three decades later, was writing a ballad about the Blackwater Boys and you can see a lyric video of that song about the 2005 New Orleans situation by clicking on the title. Back during the era when I went rollin' along with this ride's waves, I did not like the Windy City's snowy season, but during the warmer months, I felt that if it rains, I don't care - that would make no difference to me.

Constructive Support from a Blossom

 Song 718: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations, written by Mike d'Abo and Tony Macaulay, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Now that the April showers have brought us May flowers, we can celebrate a blooming melody that actually started growing on the charts during the winter of my HS senior year in early 1969. Along those colder stretches, I couldn't listen to the local top-40 station inside my parents' home because they didn't approve of the devil's music, but I could get to hear some moving hits when hanging out with friends, which I frequently did in that era. One friend that I often visited back then had an attractive sister who I also hung out with, and as the scenes unfolded, eventually I could have pointed a finger at her and vocalized this piece's lyrics. Initially I didn't feel that way, although, from the start, I did sense that she wanted to rope me in. After I came around to having a date with her, I felt attracted to her all the more, and at that point, she seemed to want to build me up, not to have a genuine romantic exchange, but simply just to let me down and mess me around.