Donate Some Passion

 Song 840: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Gimme Some Lovin’ by The Spencer Davis Group, written by Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis and Muff Winwood, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Sixty years ago, around the time I began my sophomore HS year, I started hearing an anthem emerging from the radio speakers about a guy demanding some affection, and it didn’t take long to learn the chorus and sing along. At the time, I had a few friends who might have experienced some discomfort from the warmer temperatures, but that heat did not bother me, so I never felt that the place where I hung out was on fire, though I did understand that some friends often did feel that way. About a year earlier, the young female who had previously captured my imagination had moved with her family to California, so I never saw her again. While I did still enjoy the company of other attractive females in my age range that I shared spaces with at our high school, it would take about a year-and-a-half after this hit before I met another one who triggered a feeling in me that made me want her to gimme gimme some lovin’!

Moving Hip Felines

 Song 839: This week the playlist features The Alley Cats Of Swing by Dire Strays, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I just found out about this entertaining excursion today, and I soon decided to add it to my favorite song collection. Back in January of 2020 I featured as song 496 the Dire Straits ride that it parodies and you can connect to that blog here. When growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I had a few friends and relatives who had feline or canine companions, and I would have liked to have a furry friend at home, but the family could not allow that, due to certain health issues. For my adult life, I did get to share a living space with a special pet a few times and I always appreciated having such a housemate! A decade ago, I had the pleasure of adopting a pretty kitty who has strictly nine lives and she is often playing rhythm and swing! 

Mistaken Part of the Color Spectrum

 Song 838: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Wrong End of the Rainbow by Tom Rush, written by him and Trevor Veitch, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During the summer of 1970, I listened a lot to that Taylor guy's Sweet Baby James LP, and when the autumn arrived and I returned to Northwestern University, I began to add more singer/songwriter 33s to my collection. That fall I heard a couple of tracks on my favorite local FM station from an interesting Tom fellow that got me to add a pair of his albums to my stack, including the one that featured this misdirectional conclusion. At the time, I did not do as many performances as he did, so I did not get to experience a rainbow life from show to show, but when I developed a romantic connection in that era, fairly soon I also lost my love, so I certainly did come to understand the sad shade of a smile!

Necessary Liberty

This week the playlist showcases People Got to Be Free by The Young Rascals, written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Around this time of year 58 years ago, as I got ready to begin my senior HS year, I began hearing a group of youthful tricksters spreading the radical idea that all members of human civilization worldwide deserve independence and sovereignty, and I certainly agreed with that moving perspective. Even though my parents and grandparents did not approve of the devil's music, if they had heard me singing along with this anthem when it emerged from a radio speaker, I think they would have expressed agreement with the basic idea repeated in the chorus, and I feel certain that I would remember such an incident if it had happened! For most of my life, I have understood that Love can move a mountain and make a blind man see, and while I would like to see Peace in the valley now, I also understand that a certain group of powerful figures do not want the train of freedom to arrive any time in the near future.