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.