Racing in the Drizzle

 Song 717: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's roving jaunt Running in the Rain comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues Jane Byaela, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. While I didn't have a close connection with Ms. JB, I did often see her and share spaces with her at FF gatherings. I also saw her perform one of her tunes at a FF event on a street in The Village one afternoon, and the piece she played that day might have been this moving ramble. As the final week of the shower month arrives in my area, sometimes I feel the clouds spinning and I might wrestle with the wind, so maybe I can conquer my misfortune and turn it into fate.

The Shower’s Anthem

 Song 716: This week the playlist comes around to The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin, written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the April moisture continues to come down from the sky in the Northeast, another ballad about downpour currently has a strong resonance in this area. When the LZ Houses of the Holy 33 arrived in the early spring of 1973, my wife and I lived in an attractive apartment at the south end of Evanston, IL. The place's living room had a gas-powered fireplace, which could make an entertaining flame appear, although neither of us had any particular interest in relaxing next to such a blaze, so we rarely watched the fire that grew so low. We did find out, much to our surprise, that soon after we adopted a pair of feline siblings, the male tabby climbed up the fireplace's small vent and got to the building's roof. Fortunately, our upstairs neighbor alerted us to the meow sounds coming from above her space, so I rescued our furry buddy Joker. A few months earlier, I had felt the coldness of my winter in the Windy City region, and I would experience that frigidity more times over the next few years before heading to the milder temperatures of the East Bay. During my decade on the West Coast, I did not have to see the white flakes coming down - just a little rain during certain stretches.

Humor During Precipitation

 Song 715: This week the playlist applauds Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sedaka, written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Facing another week of likely April showers puddling up my neighborhood again, I don't dismiss the possibility of hearing giggling during the downpour, although I doubt that I myself will snicker at any of the precipitation. When Mr. Sedaka started to get folks chuckling over the drizzle in the early fall of 1974, my wife and I had returned to the Chicago area, splitting up and finding separate places to snooze under covers. We had parted due to my sense of something missing in the relationship - a misunderstanding triggered by a previous romance, as I explain in the second edition of my book Expecting the Broken Brain to Do Mental Pushups, which I now have released, and which can be purchased from Amazon - the links are at mentalpushups.com. While singing along with Neil could raise a smile 50 years ago, I personally did NOT love the rainy days then, and I don't feel that way these days either. I do try to always remember to take my parasol with me whenever I might need it, because without an umbrella, I could get soaked to the skin.

Understanding Necessary Downpour

 Song 714: This week the playlist recognizes Baby the Rain Must Fall by Glenn Yarbrough, written by Elmer Bernstein and Ernie Sheldon, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the April showers start falling in the U.S. northeastern states, all of us in that area understand the basic reality expressed by this tune's title and chorus line. After the Beatles rocked my world in early 1964, at first I mostly paid attention to them and their fellow British invaders, but by the time the following year arrived I also had noticed at least a few memorable musical rambles coming from domestic sources, including this melodic forecast which climbed the charts during the colder stretch of early 1965. I was not rich or famous at the time, but I didn't dismiss the possibility - I did NOT swim the sea or fly above the sky, but I DID climb a mountain or two, and I always understood that wherever my heart leads me, that's the place I must go.