Young Men Return

 Song 673: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on The Boys Are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy, written by Phil Lynott, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the 1970s rolled around, I generally felt disappointed by much of what came across the airwaves, as it seemed to ride more on commercialism than on the punchy creative angles that had inspired much of the RnR scene in the previous decade. However, a few notable exceptions did catch my ears, including this anthem which came along in the summer of 1976. Over the preceding Windy City frigid season, I had learned about the moderate weather patterns of the West Coast and I decided I wanted to head that way during the warmer months, but then I got some bad news about my teeth and I knew I'd have to postpone the westward venture, so that compliance made me appreciate hearing some moving musical rhymes and rhythms that could enliven my final 2 Chicago-area years. At the time, the nights were gettin' warmer and it wouldn't be long 'til summer came along as I got to hear a jukebox in the corner blasting out my favorite song.

Prickly Playground

Song 672: This week on the playlist you’ll find Itchycoo Park by Small Faces, written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, and you can find an entertaining YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. About three and a half years after the Fab Four rocked my world, when they disguised themselves as a Lonely Hearts Club Band, I didn't know what to make of their move in the psychedelic direction, which didn't interest me at the time. I did like an L.A. rocking quartet that got everyone's attention by asking for a match to Light My Fire (Song 490), and some other movers got notice in those warm months before my junior HS year, including this ramble into a tingling recreation space. Of course, living with parents and grandparents who did not approve of the devil's music, the drug implications of a few of the tune's lines did spark an occasional creepy echo when I soaked in the words, but during that stretch I wasn't that hip to many of such expressions anyway, so I didn't give much thought to phrases I didn't understand. I could not have guessed then that in the summer two years later I, and a bunch of my singing classmates, would actually get to visit The Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy. To get there, we did have to get high and touch the sky, riding on a plane from NYC, and being there was really cool!

A Distinctive Feminine Type

 Song 671: This week the playlist recognizes I'm That Kind Of Girl by Patty Loveless, written by Matraca Berg and Ronnie Samoset, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after I moved to Brooklyn at the end of the summer in 1988, I discovered a local country music radio station that shared some interesting New Country tunes. I swiftly concluded that the pieces gathered around the NC term had a similar sound to the ones that were labelled country rock back in the 1970s. I had liked that tone then, and I felt pretty good about the updated version crossing my ears a couple of decades later. I soon got impressed by a Patty classic Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way) (Song 520), along with one or two of her other gems, and when her Greatest Hits disc arrived in 1993 I had to add a copy to my collection. The album got lots of spins on the player, and I quickly understood that the singer was not the woman in red or the girl next door. During my HS phase I became a love-sick fool and I wished I could have had the honor to carry all the books in school for the one who lit my fuse, but that obsession never developed into a real romance. In the early 1990s, I decided to ask the question Should Patty Loveless? as part of my song As Long as Merle is Still Haggard (which you can hear and see a YouTube video of by clicking on the title). Knowing that she’s That Kind Of Girl, I think we have the answer to that enquiry.

Within Turquoise Vision

 Song 670: This week on the playlist you can hear Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, written by Pete Townshend, and you can find an entertaining YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. After spending the middle of 1971 working as a summer missionary at a Southern Baptist Church center on The Strip in Atlanta, GA, I briefly visited my parents in upstate NY and then returned to the Evanston, IL, apartment that I shared with my college buddies. As the summer ended, Who's Next started grabbing everyone's ears, with Won't Get Fooled Again (Song 536) sparking the brightest spotlight. During that stretch, I got introduced to a very attractive female who I soon began a romance with, and we spent a lot of time looking at each other while this third Who's Next hit 45 rode the airwaves. My sight comes from a pair of Steely Blues, which I outline in my Elder Statesman song that has that title, and which you can see and hear a YouTube Lyric Video of by clicking on the title. However, according to my memory, my romantic partner from that era had blue-green eyes, showing a different tone from mine. I really liked the way her eyes looked, and also, she soon showed that she had a natural talent for how to keep me warm, even in those frigid Chicago-area Windy City winter months, so during our times together, never would I shiver.