Get Back in the Saddle

 Song 535: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's entertaining opus How Many Horses comes from my pal Terry Kitchen, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. It appears on his 2020 release Next Time We Meet and he put together a fun video to accompany it. I had not heard the cut until recently, but when I did get to listen to it, it quickly made me smile. During my youngest years, visits to my grandmother's parents' place a few miles away would occasionally include a ride in a horse-drawn wagon or sleigh, so I met the horses a few times, though I never had the possibility of mounting one myself, which certainly was a good thing, because if I had, I too would probably have ended up on the ground. I also savored the TV westerns that I got to watch growing up, but I basically understood that I had no experience riding in a saddle, so if I had tried to climb up the stirrups, I too might have had to ask the question How many horses must I fall off of?

Getting Some Special Attention

 Song 534: This week on the playlist you’ll find You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked At Me by The Dixie Cups, written by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. At some point during the 1990s, I saw a clip of The Dixie Cups performing this track, and it immediately got my attention. I hadn't heard it back in 1964 when it came along as a followup to a pair of other well-known singles, and at the time, it barely made the top 40, in contrast to the other two hitting #1 and #12, but on first listen, I felt it deserved a lot more appreciation than what it got following its release. These days, in light of the current pandemic situation, it feels good to remember moments when there was starlight and moonlight and everything was right, since it sure does not seem that way now. On this cut, I also savor the coy lyrical reference to a special day when a person would wear something new, something old and borrowed and something blue - a particular day when both members of a couple would say I do.

Make an Energetic Move

Song 533: This week the playlist comes around to Jump by Van Halen, written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Similar to last week, this week’s choice came as a result of the sad news about Eddie's demise - he died on Tuesday, 10/6, of cancer - and it also marks the first appearance of Van Halen on the list. This 1984 hit soon became the quartet's most successful single, and it quickly got my attention not long after its release. The YT link here will take you to the official video for the cut, and during the MTV era when the crew put it together, many comparable segments hit the airwaves, showing a group performing a recording, although they are usually lip-synching and visually matching their recorded parts. No matter how good the record itself, such videos generally don't impress me that much, but on this one, I feel the 45 has a visual partner that grabs me as strongly as the audio. In light of Eddie's passing, I especially appreciate his entertaining animated moves. He actually crafted the foundational riff for the tune in 1981, and it took a few years for his bandmates to recognize the value of his inspired musical ramble, but when they did, once they got it on tape and let the public hear it, it really took off, so this seems like an apt way to memorialize him. Today we can be thankful that 36 years ago, he and his gang advised us to roll with the punches to get to what's real, which makes as much sense now as it did then, if not more so.

Representing Your Gender

 Song 532: This week the playlist recognizes I Am Woman by Helen Reddy, written by Helen Reddy and Ray Burton, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Due to the sad news of Ms. Reddy's demise this past Tuesday, it seemed like an appropriate moment to highlight her signature recording as the SotW, also marking her first appearance on this list. When the anthem came across the airwaves in a very high tide in the summer of 1972, I generally liked the tune, but, having grown up in a conventional humdrum patriarchal environment, I didn't necessarily go along with all of the hit's feminist assertions. It actually took me a couple of decades to comprehend the depth of the negative consequences of patriarchy and recognize the necessity of feminine equality. In fact, late in 1973, well over a year after this cut's chart run, I had a conversation with a fellow who claimed that in a relationship, part of the male duty was to control and discipline the female partner, to the point where you might have to hit her upside the head if she didn't follow orders. At the time, in my early 20s, I went through an unfolding process of defining my moral values, and it took a year or two before concluding that I did not agree with that male supremacist POV. However, I had to get to my late 30s before I clearly understood how women had truly been down there on the floor, and to share the hope that no one's ever going to keep them down again. The more they spread their loving arms across the land, the better it is for everyone.