Hopeful Expectancy

 Song 806: This week the playlist applauds Anticipation by Carly Simon, who also wrote the song, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I spent the warm season after my sophomore year at Northwestern University working as a summer missionary in Atlanta, GA, for the Southern Baptist Church, and in September of 1971 I returned to my apartment in Evanston, IL, even though I had decided to end my college education. A friend introduced me to an attractive young woman that he thought I would like, and I soon began a passionate connection with her. I could have mentioned to her how easy it felt to be with her, as the radio would sometimes remind us in the background during our moments together, since I could tell how right her arms did feel around me. At the time, I thought I did know about the days to come, when, in the near future, my musical talent would bring me fame and fortune. However, I was not a prophet, and despite my anticipation, that magical reality didn't arrive, but even so, I do not look back on that era as being the good old days.

Ultramarine Enticement

 Song 805: This week the playlist recognizes Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells, written by Eddie Gray, Tommy James and Mike Vale, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. About a month after my senior classmates and I celebrated our graduation in June of 1969, Mr. TJ and his Ss started capturing our ears with their colorful method of convincing listeners. It didn't take long to sing along with a tune that told us a new day was comin' and people were changin', and I think we graduates agreed with those lines. As this classic rode the charts, near the final week of July, I got on a plane with a group of high school choir mates for a ride to Switzerland, and we felt sure that when the plane landed, we were gonna see the light. After that new vibration, we had an enjoyable performance tour, heading back home around the third week of August. On the bus ride up to our hometown from NYC, in the Bethel area we saw a lot of hitchhikers and the bus driver told us that a major music festival had just happened in that area. Later I would learn that the Woodstock Festival had focused on peace and good brotherhood.

Dark Rhythmic Moves

 Song 804: This week the playlist comes around to Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb, written by him and his brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. While I basically did not have much attraction to disco music when it came along in the 1970s, a few exceptions to that disinterest did spark some attention. This message started climbing the charts shortly before I began pointing my thumb in the westward direction in the Chicago area in July of 1978. Although I might not have heard the mover before the lifts I got that took me to the East Bay, after I arrived in the Golden State, I soon began to hear some rhythmic advice about how to do it right in attempting certain steps and I really did enjoy that sweet sensation that came from a radio speaker.

Numbered Amorous Brew

 Song 803: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Love Potion Number Nine by The Searchers, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. The first version of this numerical gem arrived in the summer before my ninth birthday, and I might possibly have heard it then. Whether I did or did not actually catch it during that stretch, this British Invader variant definitely grabbed my attention around the end of the year where the Fab Four had rocked my world eleven months earlier. Back then, I was a flop with chicks, but I feel certain that if I had encountered a liquid that smelled like turpentine and looked like Indian ink, I would not have wanted to take a taste of it, especially since, when growing up, I felt very fussy about my nutritional intake. Even if someone tried to convince me at the time that having the liquid would make it easy for me to start kissin' everything in sight, they still might not have persuaded me to have a sip of an affectionate drink.

At the Outset

 Song 802: This week on the playlist you can hear From the Beginning by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, written by Greg Lake, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. It makes sense to feature, as the first song for this year's collection, an anthem about initial experience. Around a year before the tune climbed the charts, I began a romantic partnership with an attractive young woman, and as we two inexperienced adults struggled to figure out some basic elements of life a year later, one of my closest hometown buddies, after getting drafted into the U.S. military, started to rent an apartment in the Nashville, TN, area. His place had an extra bedroom, so he offered to let us become his roommates in August of 1972, and we felt pleased to do so as it gave us a comfortable background when we floated along with this ELnP excursion riding the airwaves, feeling that it was all clear that we were meant to be there from the beginning.

While the Corvus Soars

 Song 801: This week the playlist applauds As the Crow Flies by Jim Allen, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's uplifting spin comes from another one from my Fast Folk circle. Back in the 1990s, when we gathered weekly and voiced our latest excursions, Jim probably shared this flying ride at some point, though I don't remember specifically when he might have done that. He did add it to a FF LP in 1992, though, so I definitely got to know it by then, and I really liked picturing a winging black bird roaming around the airspace, but I also understood the importance of paying attention while armies line up on the sly as the crow flies.

Expected Saint Arrival

 Song 800: This week the playlist recognizes Santa Claus is Coming to Town by the Supremes, written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. With the noel holiday set to arrive this week, it seems appropriate to now add this revealing travel plan to the playlist. I learned this Saint Nick narrative, and a bunch of other Yuletide rides, during my single-digit years in the 1950s, and the lucid 1963 version of it quickly got my attention. My brothers and I would sometimes sing along with holiday songs we heard on the TV or radio, but our parents basically only approved of the religious anthems. During our younger years, the folks played the reindeer gift delivery game with us a few times, even though our home's fireplace chimney was too small for a person to fit inside of it. However, once my brothers and I had all reached the age where we knew Mr. Claus did not exist, we understood who really decided if we had been bad or good, and if we wanted to build a toyland all around the Christmas tree, we knew we had to watch out and that we could not pout.