Not Your Personal Concern

Song 678: This week on the playlist you can hear It Ain't None Of Your Business by Missing Persons, written by Terry Bozzio and Warren Cuccurullo, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking here. When a group of Missing Persons decided to start letting everyone know in the early fall of 1982 that no one in particular had to pay attention to their activity or behavior, I had had the good fortune of residing for a year in an attractive house in Berkeley, CA, only a few blocks from the pizza joint that had become the HQ for a bunch of singer/songwriter types that I had hooked up with a few years earlier. I don't remember if anyone else from that circle got roped in by this moving ramble, but a certain handful of us male members of the gathering did get our rhythms set off by a female associate with flashing eyes, who I would have called our very own love gangster (a term I learned from David Crosby). Of course, we couldn't possibly have known what it was like to be inside of her, and for a while a few of us just couldn't leave her alone, but eventually, this kind of thing did have to stop.

Nitwit Statement

Song 677: This week the playlist comes around to Somethin' Stupid by Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra, written by C. Carson Parks., and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I never cared at all about Mr. Frank, but I did like a couple of tunes that came from his daughter Nancy, including the one where she explained that These Boots Are Made for Walkin' (Song 352), and when she put out a 45 in the spring of my sophomore HS year that she did with her father in early 1967, I really relished that one too. During that stretch, one of my HS classes did a visit to NYC that I participated in, and I don't recall the reason for the excursion or its primary focus, but I do know that it had some connection with Times Square, and that we students had some free time to explore the area. In doing so, I walked by a clothes store that had a radio playing, and I heard this song as I hung out by the place, with the tune giving me a good excuse to linger there. I had also heard the bus radio play the piece at least once on the 4-hour trip to Manhattan, I think I heard it again on the way back upstate, and it felt fine every time the father/daughter duo crossed my ears. On that ride, the stars did get red and the night was so blue but I didn't see expressing affection for someone as being a sign of ignorance. 

Constructing an Urban Basis

 Song 676: This week the playlist recognizes We Built This City by Starship, written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert and Peter Wolf, and you can find an entertaining YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This loud rocker arrived around the middle point of my 7-year stretch in Berkeley, CA, in the summer of 1985. When it did, I felt that we the members of the pizza joint singer/songwriter circle could have made a similar claim about laying the musical foundation for our particular metropolitan dwelling - we had built our East Bay residence on RnR, with strong side-notes circling around the additional folkie singer/songwriter angles. As well as the pizza stage, we would also often perform at People's Park, but of course, no matter what we did, the West Bay folks got a lot more notice. Back then I would not have guessed that 2 decades into the future, this piece would top a list of The 50 Worst Songs Ever. We might wonder who counts the money underneath the bar? Perhaps the same one who rides the wrecking ball into our guitars? All too often, when police have got the choke hold, those of us who try to melodically spread the truth will have lost the beat.

An Issue With the Stretch

 Song 675: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's engaging ramble Matter of Time comes from one of my East Bay colleagues Jim Bruno, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. He still lives in the SF region where I met him back in 1978. He and his musical partner had both moved to The West Coast from IL, just as I had and around the time I did. Soon after I started hanging out at the Berkeley pizza joint, I mentioned to him that his duo might enjoy that scene, but their first evening there did not get much notice, though I never understood why. I did suggest a few months later that they give it another try, and when they did, they got a lot more attention and they soon joined the circle. I liked plenty of Jim's songs that I heard during that stretch, though I don't recall this one crossing my ears at the time. At some point in late 2016, I followed a suggestion I heard from a CD Baby podcast about joining SoundCloud and doing a monthly release, and by doing so, I came across a few personal friend releases, including this moving ride, which eventually became the automatic followup that I hear after checking and listening to my upload. Having heard it as often as I have in the past few years, it has definitely risen on my radar. I do think it's a good idea to keep your eyes on the road but also remember that the end is confusing and it's only a matter of time.

Religion Founder

 Song 674: This week the playlist applauds Mr. Crowley by Ozzy Osbourne, written by Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In October of 1980, when the live version of this rocker, which got captured in the linked YT video, started making people wonder whether a certain guy did, or did not, talk to the dead, I had lived in a very nice spot in Oakland, CA, for a little over 2 years. I enjoyed hearing the question, but I did not know that it referred to the founder of the Thelemite religion - I thought it might be a general criticism of anyone who claims to talk to the dead. I had walked away from religion 8 years earlier, but I do not dismiss those who follow the principles of their mystic belief and I don't claim to have all the answers. When I was growing up, my grandfather worked for a local milk company named Crowley, though I doubt it had any connection with Aleister. Shortly after he died in early 1994, I felt as if I sensed the old man's presence a few times - that was what went on in my head, though I did not try to talk to the dead. Regarding religion, I have noticed similar phenomenon most of my adult life, so it did not surprise me in 2016 when the majority of evangelicals evidently believed that God had chosen for POTUS a guy who 2 decades earlier had characterized those who try to follow the principles of The Sermon on the Mount as idiots, fools and schmucks. I also noticed that an older woman who I knew DID try to follow and exemplify Christian values did NOT think God had picked the Donald, even though she did identify as a Republican. She probably felt, as I do, saddened by those who found themselves standing with their backs to the wall.