Small Scarlet Vehicle

 Song 587: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Little Red Corvette by Prince, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Last week I featured an anthem by The Bangles called Manic Monday which was written by Prince, and in doing so, I realized that I hadn't yet added an original record of his to the list, so tonight a special colorful mover marks his first appearance among this group. At the time he got this vehicle rolling, I lived in Berkeley, CA, and I don't recall ever encountering a Corvette on the streets there, though I felt that Mr. Royalty did convey quite well the sound and sense you might get if such a sports car did happen to come rocketing through the community. In the following 3 decades, residing mostly in the NYC area, I have no memories of meeting a fancy Chevy there either. However, during the 1990s, this tune did inspire a line in my song Drivin' in My Sleep Again (you can find the lyric video of that by clicking on the title) - I thought I was drivin' in my old black Dodge van but now here I am in a Little Red Corvette. Over the past decade, now dwelling in a more rural neighborhood, I have witnessed many of these noisy roadsters, and they do sound like a pocket full of horses. You could try to tell the drivers that they've got to slow down because they're movin' much too fast, but most of them act like they’d rather run the car body right into the ground.

Frenzied Timetable Commencement

 Song 586: This week the playlist comes around to Manic Monday by The Bangles, written by Prince, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I well remember when this hit got my attention while living in Berkeley, CA. Similar to a bunch of music critics, I immediately connected it to the Mamas & the Papas classic Monday, Monday (Song 302) from 20 years earlier. As the first instance of this female quartet crossing my radar, it soon moved me to get a copy of the LP Different Light which features this cut. The 33's title track In a Different Light appeared on this list in 2016 as Song 331. I genuinely relished the entire record, and I appreciated the way it put an end to the mildly male-supremacist narrative that women could not rock the world the way men could and did. I really liked having The Bangles rock my world when their album spun on the turntable, and I felt happy to go along when they suggested c'mon honey, let's go make some noise. We all know that time it goes so fast when you're having fun, so after I finish this post on a Sunday night, even if I then get to spend a little time in the middle of a dream by a crystal blue Italian stream, when the morning light arrives it will once again be just another Manic Monday.

A Magical Player

 Song 585: This week the playlist applauds Pinball Wizard by The Who, written by Pete Townshend, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This resounding rocker rose over the airwaves shortly before the spring of my senior HS year arrived, and I really relished the moment I got to hear it while visiting the local Boys and Girls Club across the river from my stomping ground, just a couple of miles from my childhood home. I had joined a group of fellow HS students learning and practicing judo, and we had regular weekly sessions at the B&GC, so that probably led to the magic instant when this gem lit the room, though I would also occasionally go to the facility to practice swimming in its pool. Two years later I added the Tommy double-album to my LP stock, which gave the cut a much-different backdrop. When I was a young boy, I didn't get to play the silver ball because my folks couldn't afford to hand me pocket change for the game, so back then I had of course seen nothin' like him in any amusement hall, and if I ever had in the 5 decades since, I'd never forget watching the digit counters fall.

Not Booting Fur

 Song 584: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's amusing jaunt Don’t Kick the Cat comes from a long-time singer/songwriter buddy Terry Kitchen, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Soon after I completed my CD Purrfection: The Cat Single back in early April, when I had copies in hand, I sent one to Terry, and not long after I did, I got a copy in the mail of his latest album Lost Songs. The disc has quite a few engaging rambles, but the one that immediately grabbed me on the first spin was, of course, this feline anthem. My friendship with the Kitchen fellow goes back to the late 1980s, and i will always recall the September 1994 Sober in the Sun festival that we both attended and did performances at. During a campfire song circle in the evening, I played my furry excursion Curiosity, and he had a strong reaction to it - he told me I had to finish the story in the lyrics, and his suggestion prompted me to add the 4th verse, which begins with the phrase Circumstantial evidence. You can find a lyric video of Curiosity by clicking on the title here. On the personal friend song post from 7 weeke ago I featured a shiner called Pussy Cat, so this week continues the CATegorically-correct POV. I mentioned in that segment about Pussy Cat that it had inspired the opening track of Purrfection (which is It Takes a Cat and which you can find a lyric video of by clicking on that title), so now I wonder if maybe Curiosity played a role in spawning Don’t Kick the Cat, though I won't make a claim that it did - I'll leave that to Terry to admit, or not. I will say that whatever I've done in life to get a better angle, thankfully a big ball of fur never got my feet in a tangle, and also, I can now appreciate the fact that my slippers have never exploded in a big meow. 

Greeting the Attractive One

 Song 583: This week the playlist recognizes Hey, Good Lookin' by Hank Williams, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Mr. Hank got everyone riding on this mover just as the summer of 1951 arrived, a couple of months before I was born, and about a year-and-a-half later, his life ended. During that decade, every summer my parents and grandparents took the family to western Ohio to visit my father's relatives, and within a few years my aunt and uncle would give me access to their stereo record player and their country music LP collection. I soon came to appreciate the remarkable Williams fellow and his extensive catalog. Regardless of the source, most of the classic spinners that grabbed my attention didn't usually register with other family members, but this particular one did, to the point that I can remember my mother singing along with it, which she rarely if ever did on any of the other anthems. The only other Hank hit that I recall family members singing along with was Jambalaya (Song 471). While I myself haven't got a hot rod Ford, I do have at least one two dollar bill (possibly more). With the current unresoved pandemic situation, I can imagine someone deciding to throw their date book over the fence, but I still think maybe we can find us a brand new recipe.