Taking a Late Stroll

 Song 617: This week on the playlist you can hear Walkin' After Midnight by Patsy Cline, written by Alan Block and Donn Hecht, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This Cline classic arrived and became her first hit in 1957. At some point 2 or 3 years later I got to hear it regularly as part of one of the C&W hit collection LPs that my Ohio aunt and uncle would let me spin on their turntable, among others, during our summer family visits in the 1960s, when we made the trip on the even-numbered years. While I Fall to Pieces (Song 385) soon became my favorite Patsy chart-topper, this one came in at a close second-place spot, and I always enjoyed the way it took an enlivened romantic stroll, making me feel like I'd savor sauntering next to her, regardless of how late the move might occur. If I stop to see a weepin' willow cryin' on his pillow, I would doubt he's cryin' for me but as the skies turn gloomy I might hear the night winds whisper to me - that could happen.

Shared Shining

 Song 616: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Gloria by Them, written by Van Morrison, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I didn't hear or know about this rocker when it arrived as the B-side of a hit 45 in late 1964, but a couple of years later, it started to get very familiar. I probably heard a few friends play the single, but the place where I really got to know it was on bus rides to NYC. During my HS stretch I got to participate in several educational field trips to places like the Bronx Zoo, and on those excursions, I got to listen to some wonderful radio plays, but also, a group of my fellow students liked to spend some time just singing this song together. Ever since then, whenever I catch this cut, I picture a bunch of HS student colleagues singing together on the inside of a bus rolling along a divided highway through the green Catskill Mountain forest preserve on a sunny warm spring afternoon. These days, a certain attractive female comes around who happens to be about five feet four from her head to the ground, and when she comes around here at just about midnight, or possibly an hour or two earlier, she makes me feel so good, Lord. In fact, I wanna say she makes me feel all right.

The Singular Escapee

 Song 615: This week the playlist applauds The One That Got Away by Tom Waits, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When Mr. Waits first crossed my radar, he didn't sound very interesting to me, but that shifted in a large way when his Small Change appeared a couple of years later in 1976, so during the last two years I resided in the Chicago region, I became a big Tom fan. I gave SC plenty of turntable spins while on that stretch, relishing the clever illuminating word-play territory that the 33 rode along. I doubt that I personally could have been on Easy Street or had irons in the fire, and I don't recall wearing any peculiar-looking trousers or old Italian shoes, plus I don't think I've ever had a snakeskin sportshirt. Even if I suddenly lost my equilibrium and my car keys and my pride in the cold outside, no matter how much the tattoo parlor's warm, I would not hustle there inside because I have no interest in the ink, regardless of The One That Got Away.

Brutal Male Overseer

 Song 614: This week the playlist comes around to Boss Man by Gordon Lightfoot, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the summer of 1970 I listened a lot to LPs by new guy James Taylor and veteran folkie Judy Collins that I had added to my collection in the spring, during my college freshman year, and their influence helped me refine my own personal original singer/songwriter style. As my sophomore year unfolded that fall, I included a few other prominent acoustic-guitar handlers in my 33 stack, with Gordon soon getting plenty of turntable spins. In the late winter and early spring of 1971 I rode an unexpected romantic roller coaster, but behind the passion scene Mr. Lightfoot's intriguing rambles lit up my background quite well. Back then, people often spoke of Dylanesque protest songs, implying that such a form seemed simplistic and obsolete. I thought it ridiculous to dismiss stuff like anti-war anthems, especially as the Viet Nam death toll hit a new level, and I liked the way GL wrote and released works that addressed current event issues, with this sparkler quickly becoming a shining example. I would bet many folks hearing this piece around the time it came out would recognize the kind of brutal manager it portrays, but these days, a much bigger percentage of US laborers have holes in their pockets and holes in their shoes while the company plan takes all their pay. Hopefully the recent Starbucks and Amazon union victories are a sign that workers are finally starting to get this wheel back on the track, and maybe at some point in the near future it can roll again. On a side note, the coal-mining boss at the center of the lyric sounds very similar to those who did the bidding of a certain Mr. Hatfield who managed The Sago Mine, and you can check out my illuminating lyric video of the sad event there that killed 12 miners in 2006 by clicking on that title.

Obvious Insanity

 Song 613: This week the playlist recognizes Mama He's Crazy by The Judds, written by Kenny O'Dell, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I had intended to spotlight someone else tonight, but then the sad news arrived that yesterday Naomi, the mama in this mother/daughter duo, left the land of the living, so this became an appropriate moment to feature them, in particular doing a song where the word mama appears lots of times. This marks the second Judd appearance in this bunch - I branded Why Not Me as Song 287 back in early 2016. During the era when The Judds started getting noticed in the 1980s, I lived in the East Bay area and had begun playing bass with a country bar band, among my many activities, so as a result I paid more attention to country stations, and I really relished the rambles by this mother and daughter team, including this humorous excursion. Later, in the 1990s, I made a sly reference to the pair in the line from my anthem As Long as Merle is Still Haggard (which you can hear and see a YouTube video of by clicking on the title) where I mention that Wynonna, she's Judd fine. Wynonna, of course, is the daughter, who is still with us, fortunately. This tune, interestingly enough, has a line He thinks I hung the moon and stars. Currently I'm working on producing an updated CD version of my 1985 cassette-only release Going My Way which includes a number titled Moon and Morning Sun in which I assert that a certain young female I know IS to me both the moon and the star that lightens our planet every morning, so I guess it makes sense that, inspired by this ride, I wrote a country-flavored jaunt called I'm Just Crazy. So do you think you'd better look before you leap? I'd say maybe so, but here I go.