Attempting to Allow Movement

Song 463: This week the playlist comes around to Let It Ride by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, written by Randy Bachman and Fred Turner, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this single came along in the spring of 1974, I had a pretty good steady gig playing piano at a pizza joint in Atlanta, GA. The gig lasted for a few months, and during the chart run of this 45, the weather that spring was really nice there, plus, I lived in a decent, inexpensive apartment that was half of the first floor of a house. The building had a good porch for sitting and playing guitar, and the quiet side street didn't pose any serious risk to my 2 cats, so I have plenty of pleasant, warm, sunny memories linked to this cut. For example, one of the first things I noticed when I moved there was hearing the birds singing outside my bedroom window in the morning when I woke up, which I certainly hadn't heard in Chicago. However, one bad thing did happen there one evening - after I had walked to the end of the block, and crossed the busy main street at the corner, I looked back at my place and saw the female cat of the bother/sister duo headed my way, and I couldn't stop her. As she crossed the road, a van hit her, knocking her to the pavement, and then passing over her without the wheels or any other part of the vehicle touching her. After the van passed over her, she got up and ran by me into the park that I had entered, disappearing around a nearby culvert. I called her name and searched for her in vain. After a while, I gave up and went back to my place. I came back 15 minutes later, called her name and searched for her, and again got no result. I did that twice more, and indeed, the third time was the charm. Expecting nothing, when I called her name that time, she meowed her reply, and I finally found her. I carried her back home, and she never showed any physical problems from that incident, but in her mind, she clearly couldn't Let It Ride. Following that episode, her behavior was never quite the way it had been before, and I was grateful that she hadn't suffered any physical harm, but I also knew that no matter how much we might try, try, try, she would never Let It Ride.