Do What? Did He?

 Song 639: This week the playlist comes around to Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann, written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Two weeks ago I featured a Mann ensemble in this collection for the first time, highlighting a melodic ride that his Earth Band did, and since I have planned for years to add to the list this particular enlivening ramble, I figured I might as well get around to that too. I don't recall whether I heard this hit as it climbed the charts in the summer following the icier season when the Fab Four first rocked my world, but I do remember my neighbor buddy from across the street mouthing the words one afternoon during that sunny stretch, and I soon joined him, at least in part motivated by a lyrical simplicity that didn't take long to grasp. He was just walkin' down the street singin' "Do wah diddy, diddy, dum diddy do" while snappin' his fingers and shufflin' his feet. Perhaps it was a good thing that we did not know at the time that the same condition which led to Woody Guthrie's demise also lurked inside his system, all too soon haunting his entire existence and bringing him to his final chapter. I share a few of the details of his Huntington's Disease story in my book Expecting the Broken Brain to Do Mental Pushups, and I intend to have an updated second edition of that paperback available in a few months.

The Conflict Scam

 Song 638: This week on the playlist you’ll find The War Racket by Buffy Sainte-Marie, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Over the last decade, I've learned a lot about WW1 hero Smedley Butler who wrote a book in the late 1930s letting us all know that War is a Racket, and that volume probably provided some inspiration for the lyrical direction here. Back in 2018, Buffy released the album that uses this anthem as its title track. I just found out about the song a week ago, thanks to a cool FaceBook post, and it really grabbed me the first time I heard it. This actually marks the premier appearance of Ms. Sainte-Marie among this collection. I became aware of her in the early 1970s as I got around to crafting my own personal singer/songwriter style, influenced by fellow folkies like her, Donovan, that Bob Zimmerman guy, etc., and Buffy's hit Universal Soldier soon got my attention, so this recent ride adds another layer to the foundation she set 6 decades ago. Back in the 1980s, I wrote a song called Getting Dark which will appear on my upcoming release Rock Ave. and which expressed my concern about U.S. leaders trying to move the nation in the direction of endless war. As the New American Century began, the Bushes and billionaire bullies started to put war on the masses so they could clean out the purse, and the D.C. leaders have continued to increase the numbers of the dead and impoverished by playing their little patriot game. On a side note, I have a lyric video for my Elder Statesman song New American Century Part 1 which illustrates what I have to say about how this murderous racket unfolded 2 decades ago, and you can check that out by clicking on the title.

Muddled by Illumination

 Song 637: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, written by Bruce Springsteen, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I don't recall whether songwriter Bruce's version of this ride crossed my ears when it first arrived near the beginning of 1973, but I do remember that this MMEB rendition rode the airwaves quite often 4 years later and I definitely enjoyed taking that melodic trip whenever it came out of the speakers. While I've included a few other Springsteen movers in this bunch, such as Pink Cadillac (Song 299), this hit marks the first Manfred appearance in this collection. During its charting phase, as I prepared step-by-step my plan to head to the West Coast the following year, I felt certain that I would relish checking out the weather chart in the San Francisco region much more than doing so in the Chicago area where I had resided. When I started pointing my thumb westward the next summer, I needed a ride a few times, including shortly after I visited a childhood friend in Denver on the way, but soon enough, with hitcher's good fortune, I got what it takes to get a very close view of the SF Bay.

Endless Adoration

 Song 636: This week the playlist recognizes Never My Love by The Association, written by Dick and Don Addrisi, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This marks the premier appearance of this particular sextet among this collection. I think the first time the group crossed my ears happened in the summer before my sophomore HS year when they let us know that Along Comes Mary. During that school year, at some point I managed to acquire a modern music song book, and I spent a lot of time with it, learning how to play songs on my home piano, including one called Cherish that I hadn't yet heard. Then, in the summer following that school year, these six fellows shared their NML perspective. Whenever this 45 comes to mind, I always picture the barber shop where my parents regularly took me to get my hair length shortened, so I must have heard it there, and really enjoyed doing so. If you ask me if there'll come a time when I finally grow tired of a melodic ramble that I have relished for over 55 years, how could you think my love for this hit will end? Never will my love for Never My Love ever come to an end!

Unavoidable Clutches

 Song 635: This week the playlist applauds Hands All Over by Soundgarden, written by Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I don't think I knew about this rumbler when it showed up on the quartet's 1989 album Louder Than Love but it definitely got my attention when it appeared in their 1997 hit compilation A-Sides which I added to my collection soon after the disc came along.  During that era I gave the record a spin for at least a few times every week. Back then, I did not perceive a striking motion where trees fall down like dying soldiers, but a few years later, not long after the New American Century arrived, suddenly I got stunned watching the huge greedy hands all over western culture who kept ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures.