A Difficult Waking-Hours Evening

 Song 835: This week the playlist comes around to A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. After the Fab Four rocked my world in February of 1964, I did pay attention to their fellow British Invaders as well, but I also continued to keep an eye (and ears) on them, and during the summer vacation of that year, I really liked hearing about their difficult time period! I soon found out that they had a movie for which the tune served as a title and a theme, and I would have liked to see (and hear) that film, but my family did not approve of viewing a movie in a theater, so the only ones I got to see back then were the ones that appeared on TV. The radio did give me some chances to hear the moving anthem, and then later, in my young adult years, I did get to view the classic film!  During my school years, I tried to be a good boy, working like a dog on homework, but even when I did, oftentimes I could NOT spend the night sleeping like a log!

Metropolitan Illumination

 Song 834: This week the playlist focuses on Lights of Downtown by The Long Ryders, written by Stephen McCarthy, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this enlightening description started emerging from radio speakers at the end of the summer of 1985, I resided in a comfortable home a few blocks from the downtown area of the city of Berkeley, CA, which I shared with five of my singer/songwriter colleagues. A few years earlier, soon after POTUS Reagan ended the federal funding for mental health institutions in early 1981, the number of homeless people wandering around that downtown area greatly increased, and when Mr. Ron essentially said that homeless people choose to live on the street, I got a very different impression from the ones I saw and heard wandering through the Lights of Downtown Berkeley, though, at the time, I had no idea what caused their insanity! Now, however, I DO have a much clearer understanding of such mental problems, so I share that understanding in my book Expecting the Broken Brain to Do Mental Pushups, and you can get a copy from Amazon of the most recent edition of it by clicking on the title.

A Wave

 Song 833: This week the playlist rides on Ripple by Grateful Dead, written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the fall of 1970 I began my sophomore year at Northwestern University, and in the Evanston apartment that I shared with three fellow students, I had a friend who had become a big fan of the GD quintet and he liked introducing me to their new vision of a moving wave. Being a word-game player myself, during that era I gave the band the nickname The Dreadful Grape but I did like hearing their excursions. As I developed my own style, I hoped to have songs to fill the air, wanting my words to glow with the gold of sunshine. Regularly heading down a road somewhere between the dawn and the dark of night, I often found a path that was for my steps alone.

Excellent Movement This Evening

Song 832: This week the playlist frolics to Good Rockin' Tonight by Elvis Presley, written by Roy Brown, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I probably did not get to hear this anthem during the era when it rode the charts, since my folks had no interest in the sounds coming across the air waves. When the Fab Four rocked my world a decade later, i became more focused on the Top 40 and at a certain point, I found out that both John and Paul had been big fans of the Elvis guy, so when, as a young adult, I began acquiring a collection of 33s, I did add a few EP gems to the pile, including one that featured this hit. When I got that disc riding on the player, I heard the news and that would rock away all my blues.

Vagrant Feline Shades

 Song 831: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Stray Cat Blues by The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Soon after the Fab Four rocked my world in February of 1964, a bunch of their fellow British Invaders did tunes that climbed the charts, and when the summer of the following year arrived, their circling pebble colleagues grabbed my attention with their complaint about inability to acquire gratification. That anthem made them the top competitor to the Liverpool quartet, and three years later they continued to rock hard while J,P,G & R headed in a psychedelic direction. I might have heard this accusation on the radio during my final HS senior-year months during the winter and spring of 1969, but I definitely did get to hear it regularly in the fall of that year after I moved into a room of a dormitory at Northwestern University. The guy who resided in the room across the hall from me had a very large album collection and a high-quality record player, and the RS five ranked as his favorite band, so I got to hear plenty of their songs that I already knew, plus some other interesting ones that I didn't initially recognize. At the time, I was very far from home, but I did not miss my mother, since I could, and would, regularly get to visit her and the rest of the family in the coming years. I was no mad-brained bear and I certainly had at least one friend who was wilder than me!

Understanding Her Desires

 Song 830: This week the playlist showcases If She Knew What She Wants by The Bangles, written by Jules Shear, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. While I had, by my mid-twenties, gotten beyond many of the male supremacist ideas that I inherited growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, in the spring of 1986, a female quartet proved that their gender could rock just as strongly and compellingly as my side of the divide. Initially, I think it did surprise me, but I really liked hearing them making their lively points. Around seven years earlier, ! had gotten crazy for this girl in that neighborhood, and if she knew what she wanted back then, I would have tried giving it to her. I found out, though, that she had so many ideas traveling around in her head that she didn't need anything from mine.

Request Information

 Song 829: This week the playlist comes around to Ask Questions by Jack Hardy, 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 rhythmic advice comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues. In fact, he was one of the initial founders and central figures of the group. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I would regularly join the gathering at his Manhattan apartment on Houston Street on Thursday in the early evening where we would each share our latest compositions. While I did get to hear some impressive Jack tunes, I don't think I heard him do this one back then. I do get his point, though, that history has eyes and history has ears, and that therefore, we regular citizens should climb up the hill to the capitol and dare to hold them accountable. One of the best ways to do that is to ask questions!

Beyond Someone

 Song 828: This week the playlist focuses on Over You by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, written by Jerry Fuller, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title.  When the end of the summer of 1968 arrived and I began my senior HS year, I started hearing about a Gary guy's frustrated efforts to distance himself from an obsession over a former romantic partner. I soon learned his chorus lines and would often sing along when I heard the anthem rising from a nearby radio. Ironically, during that era I developed a close friendship with an attractive young woman in my age range who had become a nearby neighbor when her family moved in to a house they bought about a half mile from my parent's place. I wasn't losing any sleep over her at the time, but I also didn't know how to play the romantic game, so the precious moments we knew did not have the kind of reverberations that the ones from Gary and his former lover did have.

Tiny Fabrications

 Song 827: This week the playlist rides on Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac, written by Christine McVie and Eddy Quintela, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title  As we got close to the end of the summer of 1987, the FM five began warning us about compact fibs, and having encountered plenty of such deceptions over the course of my life, I soon started singing along with that description whenever it emerged from my car radio during my excursions, or from my bedroom radio at home. Along that stretch, I planned to head back to the East Coast during the following summer, as my grandparents got to an age range where I felt I had to get back closer to them if I could turn the page. Fortunately, I did find a way, when, a year later, I found a place to settle where I could reside just a few hours from their home.

Continue Holding

 Song 826: This week the playlist applauds Hang On Sloopy by The McCoys, written by Wes Farrell and Bert Berns, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Soon after the Fab Four rocked my world in February of 1964, their fellow British Invaders started catching my attention as well, and at the end of the summer of the following year, just before I started ninth grade, another British quartet began encouraging a sailboating female to maintain connections. I really liked singing along with the chorus of that anthem whenever it came rising from a nearby radio speaker. For a few previous years, I had felt obsessed by a female classmate who I hoped to eventually embrace passionately. She lived in a very good part of town in early 1965, but then her family moved to California, so I never did get to feel her hair ever hang down on me.

Heavy Burden

 Song 825: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on The Weight by Spooky Tooth, written by Robbie Robertson, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Back in the summer vacation of 1968, I would walk down the road about a mile-and-a-half from my parent's house at least once a week to visit my best friend, and when his brother wanted to part with recent top-40 singles after he got tired of hearing them, he would hand them to me for $1 apiece, which was cheaper than their original price. When I walked back into my parent's home, I would keep the 45s hidden so they wouldn't see them, and I put them in the area where the other singles sat. This hit got a place within that pile and I gave it plenty of listens during my final HS year as I often got those discs spinning on the player in the basement where my folks, on the first and second floor, didn't have to hear the devil's music. While listening down there, I went lookin' for a place to hide since my folks felt that when I played those 45s, I was with the Devil walkin' side by side.

Carelessly Toppled Into Passion

 Song 824: This week the playlist features Fooled Around and Fell in Love by Elvin Bishop, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the middle of the frigid season of early 1976 in the Windy City area, I often spent a lot of time behind the wheel, and in doing so, I got to hear some pleasing musical rambles coming from the radio speakers, including one that slyly admitted some frolicking which led to an amorous obsession. I understood and relished the implications of that tuneful confession. Back then, I could have imagined having access to a million girls if I achieved the kind of success the tune's lead singer had, which I thought I deserved, and I wouldn't have cared how much they cried if they did so in response to me treating them as heartlessly as Mr. EB had done - their tears would have left me cold as a stone.

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.

Munching in Pastures

Song 818: This week the playlist rides on Grazing in the Grass by Hugh Masakela, written by Philemon Hou, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the summer of 1968 unfolded and I began looking forward to my final HS year, this Hugh guy started giving us all a brassy view of creatures ingesting green vegetation, and I really enjoyed picturing the pastures that his metallic melodies sketched. During that summer, my family visited my father's relatives in the Bowling Green, OH, area, as they had done every summer in the 1950s and every other summer in the 1960s. On that 1968 visit, as usual, we did get to see and watch a few of their cows and goats, and doing so gave me some more specific scenes to repicture when Mr. HM's anthem came rising from a nearby radio.

Inability to Act

 Song 817: This week the playlist showcases I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) by Hall & Oates, written by Daryl Hall, John Oates and Sara Allen, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. About three years after I had found a comfortable and affordable spot to reside in Oakland, CA, in September of 1988, the home's owner had decided to sell the place, and luckily for me, one of the occupants at a six-bedroom residence in Berkeley filled with my musical friends moved out, and I soon moved into that available room. A few months after I made that move, a duo with names that sounded like a corridor and grains had their harmonies inform us about their inability to accept an expectation. At that point, I actually paid a lot more attention to my fellow songwriters and performers in that Berkeley circle, but I did still sometimes give a listen to the radio as well. Back then, I had a strong attraction to a female member of the Berkeley circle, and I felt ready and willing to do almost anything that she might want me to, but fairly soon, I realized I had to accept the fact that she did not go for that.

Displayed Patterns

Song 816: This week the playlist focuses on Traces by The Classics IV, written by Buddy Buie, J. R. Cobb and Emory Gordy Jr., and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Early in the year of 1968, this musical five who identified as a quality quartet started telling us about a Spooky (Song 743) romantic partner, and then in January of the following year, as I looked forward to probably having my HS diploma in hand during the hot season, those five began outlining marks and indications that might give a clue about a passionate exchange that sadly didn't work out right. I really cherished their sketchy ballad and I soon learned the chorus, so I could sing along with that part when the transistor radio shared the ride, as it often did for a few months. Even back then, I had some memories in bits and pieces, and living with a fundamentalist family, every night, when I went to bed, I would close my eyes and say a prayer, but since my folks did not approve of the devil's music, I had trouble singing along with that line.