An Expansive Romantic Footprint

 Song 582: This week on the playlist you can hear Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse, written by Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During the winter months of my college freshman year, this entertaining ramble topped the charts, and when it crossed the airwaves I liked riding the tide with it. I had found myself under harsh criticism from my new dorm roommate, who himself had writing ambitions and who verbally disparaged the lyrics of my compositions that I played for him, with the one shining exception being a piece called The Wanderer that I wrote a couple of months before we began sharing the same living space (and you can find a lyric video of that sparkler by clicking on the title). He tried to move me more in the direction of serious-message songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and by the time summer break arrived he had gotten me headed down that path, but I could still relish the kind of bland romantic meandering that this EL cut personifies. After all, as a young adult male, I knew that with a certain female there was something about her hand holding mine - it was a feeling that was fine, because she really had a magical spell that was working so well that I couldn't get away from it, and I had no reason to want to do so.

Facing a Favorable Outcome

 Song 581: This week on the playlist you’ll find It's Gonna Be Alright by Gerry and the Pacemakers, written by Gerry Marsden, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This marks the first appearance of Gerry and Co. on the list - a quartet who came along with their fellow Liverpudlians The Fab Four as part of the 1964 British Invasion. Soon after those Beatles rocked my world during the winter of my first year at Junior High, I started learning about their comrades, including the Pacemaker four. I remember one weekend night when I hung out with a few friends inside the porch of a house a half-mile down the road from my home, and as we played cards and listened to the radio, this shiner lit the airwaves, and I relished it when it did, possibly thinking that it might have improved my odds. The magic of that moment has lingered with me for well over 5 decades now, and perhaps it makes sense to honor this hit during the year that sadly marked the end of the lead singer's life. Gerry left the land of the living on January 3rd, and this coming Friday, 9/24, he could have celebrated his 79th birthday if he had survived. Facing the pandemic question marks still hanging in the air, maybe once in a while my heart skips a beat but I continue to believe that it's gonna be alright, alright, alright, it's gonna be alright.

Another Blazing Spiral

 Song 580: This week the playlist applauds Ring of Fire by Social Distortion, written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I posted the Johnny Cash version of this tune 4 weeks ago (Song 576), and I had intended to feature this other rendition after doing so, but the following week was my 7th week personal friend time, and then a couple of recent deaths (Don Everly and Charlie Watts) moved me to highlight recordings where they played their parts. The SD punk rockers put out this track back in 1980, but it didn't cross my radar until shortly after the 2004 November Presidential election, which I strongly suspected W and the Chainy Snake had stolen as much as (or possibly even more than) the one they grabbed 4 years earlier. Clicking on the title Chainy Snake here will take you to a lyric video on YouTube of the anthem I wrote about W's partner in crime. Not long after that late fall fraud, I discovered a few trustworthy sources of information, including the Ring of Fire Radio podcast, and I soon came to appreciate RFK Jr.'s contributions to the segments. I became a regular listener of that show for the next few years, and I always liked the sound of their theme song, which obviously did not come from Mr. Cash. Due to the current unresolved pandemic situation, we have the social distancing form of social distortion, and hearts like ours don't get to meet as often as previously, but the taste of love is still sweet, and maybe this scenario will get worked out soon and we'll stop going down down down.

The Witching Hour Mover

 Song 579: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Midnight Rambler by The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Following last week's post of an Everly Brother's hit meant to memorialize the recent passing of Don Everly, this week's rocker from the Rolling Stones can serve to commemorate drummer Charlie Watts, who left the land of the living on Tuesday, August 24, only 3 days after Don's demise. My appreciation for the RS 5 began when Satisfaction (Song 256) hit the airwaves, but it greatly increased soon after I arrived in college a few years later. Hank Neuberger, who lived in the dorm room across the hall from mine, had a very good sound system for highlighting his amazing LP collection, and in the Beatles vs. Rolling Stones debate, he leaned strongly towards the latter, so he introduced me to some RS classics I hadn't heard, plus he shared their latest disc, which featured this cut. While I still favored the Fab Four over the Rolling Five, Hank definitely did increase my respect for Mick & Co., and soon enough, I did add Let It Bleed to my stockpile. This track opens side 2 of the 33, and I liked it so much that I would sometimes just play it over and over. It was one of the final recordings to include the band's founder Brian Jones, who I have long admired, and who died before the album got released. I really relish the slide guitar and harmonica embellishments, and I have savoured the lines that tell a story simllar to one which I crafted shortly before first hearing the Stones roller. You can find a lyric video of my ramble called The Wanderer by clicking on the title, so if you ever meet the midnight rambler coming down your marble hall, I guess you can say I told you so.