Human Weirdness

Song 823: This week on the playlist you can hear People Are Strange by The Doors, written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. The folks I grew up with during the 1950s & 1960s did not approve of the devil's music but I still often managed to hear a lot of songs I liked when hanging out with friends, and other situations as well. During my sophomore HS year, I did get to regularly hear the first album by The Doors while working on the student newspaper, and when the fall of 1967 arrived and I began my junior year, I soon got to hear the group's second 33 disc, which included this analysis. While I didn't think that second album hit the same amazing level that their first one did, I did still like what I heard. At the time, I did regularly deliver newspapers to homes in my neighborhood, and whether I felt up or down, the streets never seemed uneven. I guess I wasn't ever that strange back then, because I never saw faces come out of the rain!

Exchanging Identity

 Song 822: This week the playlist focuses on If I Were You by Wendy Beckerman, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's identification outline comes from one of my Fast Folk colleagues. Soon after I moved from Berkeley, CA to Brooklyn, NY in the fall of 1988, I started hanging out with the FF group, usually attending the weekly meetings at Jack Hardy's apartment on Houston Street in Manhattan where we would share our new tunes. I don't think I heard her do this piece at one of those gatherings, and I think I would remember it if I had heard her do it then, because I have a song called If I Was You, so when Ms. WB's IIWY gem came along, it did quickly gather my attention. While I didn't see all the motion in the monster or all the flicker in the fire, her description made it easier to picture those movements. I had decided a few weeks ago that I would feature a Wendy ride today, and I just found out yesterday that she left the land of the living on 3/18/26. If she had changed identity, she could have told herself don't be aftaid of dying, and now it doesn't matter that there was nothing she could do to help her find her other shoe.

Turquoise Fabric

 Song 821: This week the playlist comes around to Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton, written by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Around the time I reached the end of my first decade, my folks gave me a transistor radio, and a couple of years later, I really liked hearing this Bobby fellow doing his descriptions of an attractive female wearing indigo apparel. Fairly soon, I learned the chorus lines and I would sing along with Mr. BV when his vivid melodic portrayal came floating from the radio speaker. At the time, I felt obsessed by a certain young woman, to the point that seeing her could make me feel warmer than May, even though we rarely got close enough to even speak with each other. About a year-and-a-half after this gem hit the charts, her family moved to California, and when she left, gone was the glow, but I still carried a memory through the years for a while after she disappeared.

Zis and Zat

Song 820: This week the playlist recognizes Zor and Zam by The Monkees, written by Bill and John Chadwick, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title.  As the spring of my junior HS year unfolded in 1968, it did disappoint me when this primate quintet who had done TV segments that I had enjoyed for a year and a half hit the end of their tube career in late March, so when their fresh chart-topper arrived soon after, it didn't take long to learn a lot of the lines that I could then sing along with when the piece emerged from a nearby radio. At the time, the U.S. leaders called for war at the rise of the sun. I read news pieces and heard news shows warn us about how the dominoes could fall, as the MIC fashioned their weapons, one upon one, ton upon ton. For no real reason, that era's war actually continued for about another 7 years! 

Fierce Existence

 Song 819: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Wild Wild Life by Talking Heads, written by David Byrne, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the summer of 1986, I had a comfortable room in a 6-bedroom house in Berkeley, CA, that I shared with a bunch of my singer-songwriter friends. While the SF Bay Area has milder temperatures overall, the summer months are still the best time to do visits to special places like the Yosemite National Park, and that summer I had a car, so I drove myself and a good friend over to see and visit our favorite peaks. At this point, I don't remember if the radio shared this gem during that excursion, but I do know that when we got on that mountain top, we certainly did get to see some wild wild life.