Amusement As the Only Option

 Song 759: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's entertaining ramble All You Can Do is Laugh comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues, Jeff Tareila, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after I moved from Berkeley, CA, to Brooklyn, NY, in September of 1988, I found out about the weekly songwriter gathering at Jack Hardy's Manhattan apartment, and that soon became a regular part of my schedule. Getting into the FF circle, I became good friends with JT, to the point that when he had a wedding a few years later, my romantic partner and I got to attend that marriage ceremony. For much of my adult life, both before and after that event, some people have told me that certain difficulties I experience stem from my hair, and if I would just cut it all off, I would really get somewhere. How does someone respond to such advice? All you can do is laugh!

Unable to Purchase Passion

 Song 758: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and originally credited to him and John Lennon, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. About a month after the Fab Four rocked my world in February of 1964, they had another amazing chart topper getting everyone's attention. It didn't take long to learn the chorus lines and melody of the anthem about the lack of a connection between cash and affection, so I could soon sing along with it when the radio featured it. During those school years, a class I attended would sometimes do a field trip to NYC to visit places there such as the Bronx Zoo, and on those trips, we would get to hear the bus's radio station playing the Top 40. On one of those excursions, which I think happened in the spring of 1965, while riding on a freeway in Manhattan, we riders got to hear this Beatles classic, which at that point had already become a golden oldie. Growing up in a working-class family back then, I would truly have appreciated a romantic partner that valued the kind of things that money just can't buy.

Moving on Nothing

 Song 757: This week on the playlist you can hear Running on Empty by Jackson Browne, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I recently realized that I had gotten to quite a high number on this list while only including three Browne tunes in it, so now at least I'll have a fourth one by him as part of the group. I initially started seeing his name as the writer of a few notable recordings by Tom Rush that I really liked, and then in early 1972 he released his own first LP, which featured his hit Doctor My Eyes (Song 286). I soon added that 33 to my collection, and it got lots of spins on the turntable. However, by the time the album that included this title track came along, in December of 1977, I did not buy one of those because I already intended to point my thumb towards the west when the next warmer months arrived, and I had started unloading my pile of 33s and 45s. Still, I really did like hearing, and singing along with, this moving lift, especially when sitting behind the driver's wheel myself, as I often did during that era. Back then, even with the road regularly rushing under my wheels, rarely, if ever, would I find myself running blind, or even running behind.

Blustery Air Movement

 Song 756: This week the playlist recognizes Windy by The Association, written by Ruthann Friedman, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Over the past week, in my area we had a couple of breezy days where we had some major amounts of moving air that brought down a few tree branches, so it seems like the appropriate moment to feature this gusty ride, which first raised listeners' ears in the summer of 1967. At that point I got to hear the top 40 on the transistor radio, which I would often do in the back yard during the warmer weather, since that way, I wouldn't have to make noise near the folks who disparaged the devil's music. In my HS years, I also had a friend who sold me cheaply his singles when he got tired of hearing them, so I might have had this 45 in my collection soon after it dropped from the charts. Giving that disc lots of spins on my single player would have moved me to start reaching out to capture a moment.