Backwoods Heritage

 Song 685: This week the playlist applauds Down in the Boondocks by Billy Joe Royal, written by Joe South, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. The Fab Four had rocked my world in the middle of my seventh-grade year, and initially I mostly paid attention to them and their fellow British invaders, but by the time the summer arrived the following year, I had heard a few sounds coming from the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, including one written by a guy with the name South and performed by a fellow with a Royal name that had a bit of country flavor in its tone. While my school teachers never spoke about class differences in U.S. society, I did understand the message about the side of town that I grew up in and how coming from Down in the Boondocks might give someone a reason to put me down. I enjoyed singing along with the chorus lines on this anthem when it lit up the transistor radio during the warm weather months before I started HS, and four years later I got a way to move from the old shack.

Loyalty Expressed

 Song 684: This week the playlist recognizes Faithfully by Journey, written by Jonathan Cain, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Around the time this moving road song arrived in the early spring of 1983, I had begun a close friendship and budding partnership with a very talented lead guitar player, and soon after I did, he mentioned that his grandmother wanted to sell her 1967 car for a really good price. I took advantage of that deal, and after having spent 5 years living in the East Bay without owning a vehicle, I now had a reliable set of wheels that, during the second half of my CA decade, transported me to remarkable destinations like Yosemite National Park and also assisted my participation in a few performing musical groups. Along that initial stretch when I first got to sit in the driver's seat, this Journey jaunt rose out of the radio speaker at least a few times, and lit up my traveling experiences. I don't remember if I ever took a highway run into the midnight sun, but my wheels sure did go round and round quite often as I headed right down the line, and I got through space and time so I could share a stage and do another show with my tuned-in comrades.

When Reaching a Destination

 Song 683: This week on the playlist you’ll find By The Time I Get To Phoenix by Glen Campbell, written by Jimmy Webb, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this entertaining GC excursion started coming across the airwaves near the end of the summer of 1967, just before my HS junior year, I had been scratching my head about the new psychedelic direction that the Fab Four and some others had started heading towards, and so I had a better initial reaction to the more conventional tones that came along from certain sources. I had gotten roped in by Mr. Campbell's lifts - particularly Gentle on My Mind (Song 368), and this followup sounded like another good trip to take. I have a vague memory of hearing the tune, probably from a transistor radio, while outdoors with my mother, and it brought a smile to her face. My parents and grandparents despised the devil's music and some of the rougher sounds that came from the radio might trigger strongly-negative reactions, but sometimes a gentler feel would get a favorable response, which might surprise me but then would make it easier for me to hear the song another time. By the time I actually did get to Phoenix, I had almost reached the end of my twenties, and that made me appreciate the sunshine there and the remarkable views even more than I might have a decade earlier.

Pursuing Reverberations

 Song 682: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's ringing excursion Following the Echoes comes from my East Bay comrade Jeff Larson, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In 1979 we met in a small San Francisco club after each doing short sets on stage, and we soon developed a close friendship and musical solidarity. For the rest of the decade that I resided in the East Bay area, we would often share songs, riffs and ideas, providing each other with melodic inspiration. When, back in 2016, I started posting one of my songs every month on SoundCloud, after hearing a CDBaby podcast that mentioned another independent musician doing so, I soon began hearing this tune on SC every time after I played my monthly release, and it didn't take long for it to become one of my JL favorites. A year or two ago, it got replaced by a piece called Matter of Time that I featured here 7 weeks ago, but that did not effect how much I continue to enjoy this one. I certainly did not get too close for comfort on this ride, and I can't imagine how anyone possibly could ever do so.

Your Deceiving Ticker

 Song 681: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Your Cheatin' Heart by Hank Williams, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During my single-digit years, my family would visit my father's relatives in western Ohio every summer, and around the time I hit age 7, when we made that visit, my aunt and uncle would give me access to their stereo and C&W record collection. I remember getting to hear a bunch of Hank classics, and I soon developed plenty of respect for the guy and his multiple talents. It didn't take long to learn this ramble, and after having done so, I think my older brother and I sang it together in the car while on that lengthy ride back home, which took nearly a whole day, back in the era before the interstate highways got built. I recall my father at some point having a negative response to this melodic drive which carried intimations of infidelity, because such action would reek of immorality to someone with strong fundamentalist values, so after his criticism, we avoided that musical lift while in his company, and similar ones as well. Sadly for Mr. Williams, this recording came from his last studio session, and he died before getting to see it top the charts. These days I do know someone who all too often will try to sleep, but sleep won't come the whole night through, though in her case, when she has to toss around, the problems seem to stem mainly from her nasal and/or intestinal issues, NOT from love she threw away.

Urging Silence

 Song 680: This week on the playlist you can hear Hush by Deep Purple, written by Joe South, and you can find an entertaining YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. The DP quintet started catching everyone's ears during the summer of 1968 with their directive for someone to quiet down, and it might have sounded familiar, since a different version had appeared a year earlier, but this rendition came across as much stronger and got more notice. The Fab Four and Rolling Stone 5 had both headed in a psychedelic direction the year before, and I didn't know what to make of those moves, but I appreciated the rougher tones coming from types like the DP 5, even though, in a fundamentalist religious home that disparaged the devil's music, the heavier rock conveyed a more evil message. I tried to be a good boy, but the beat really moved me. At the time, a certain young woman was on my mind, and I thought she looked so fine, despite how she soon turned my attraction to her into quicksand. When I found out about the ring she got from a different guy, that broke my heart, and I had to tell the emotions encircling me to hush, hush!

Thumb Conveyance

 Song 679: This week the playlist comes around to Hitch a Ride by Boston, written by Thom Scholz, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the middle of the 1970s, while going through the brutal frigidity of a Windy City icy season, I found out about the milder climate of the SF Bay Area and started making plans to head that way. However, I had a bad tooth situation occur that meant that I’d have to spend two more years in the Chicago region before I could aim west. Around that time, I also had my first 16-track 2-inch-tape recording session, and when the Boston album arrived in the late summer of 1976, I thought the songs sounded good but the studio rock ring Mr. Scholz had given them made them reverberate in a much more engaging way, which I appreciated after my own studio experience. In the early warm months of 1978, I knew I was gonna hitch a ride, head for the other side, leave it all behind and never change my mind. I hoped to not have to face the coldest winter ever again or have to crack the ice and fly, and not long after I pointed my thumb westward, I got the lifts I needed to convey me to the West Coast.