Impressive Tabby

 Song 785: This week the playlist focuses on Cool Cat by Queen, written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Near the end of the summer of 1981, I found out that I'd have to get another place to reside because my room would soon become unavailable, and fortunately, someone moved out of the house in Berkeley where a bunch of my musical friends lived and I got that available space. While I mostly paid attention to the melodic rides coming from that Berkeley circle, I did still listen to the radio as well, and in the spring of 1982 a royal quartet began informing everyone about a groovy feline. For years, I had been wishing and hoping and waiting to really hit the big time, but did it happen? No, it didn't. However, the real reason for missing the big time had nothing to do with speeding too fast.

Rural Pathway

 Song 784: This week the playlist comes around to Country Road by James Taylor, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In my freshman year at Northwestern University, which started in the fall of 1969, I got a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine to keep myself informed about the music that interested me, and I soon found out about this JT fellow. Shortly before the summer arrived and I headed back to my parents' upstate NY home, I bought a few LPs that I thought I'd like, including the new album by Mr. Taylor. I spent much of that summer break working as a counselor for a music and arts camp near Camptown, PA, and during my free time there, I often played my 33s on the turntable in my cabin. I quickly got to know all of the new record's songs, and this particular one inspired me to write a tune that I called Country Highway and which you can see and hear a lyric video of by clicking on the title. Back then, I sometimes thought I could hear a heavenly band full of angels that were coming to set me free, and while they never actually arrived, it did give me a good reason to walk on down, walk on down, walk on down a country road. I had introduced my camp colleagues to sweet baby james and they all really liked his music. Then, about a month after the summer camp ended, the airwaves started letting everyone else know about the Fire And Rain (Song 263).

Inaudible Cardiac Throb

 Song 783: This week the playlist recognizes Can't You Hear My Heartbeat by Herman’s Hermits, written by John Carter and Ken Lewis, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after the Beatles rocked my world in February of 1964, their fellow British Invaders began catching my ears as well, and I soon started hearing from a reclusive quintet about someone's inability to pick up the nearby sound of someone else's pulsation. It didn't take long to learn the melody for the song title and the spots where it appeared, so I could then sing along with the Herman five whenever their question mark rose out of the transistor radio. At the time, I had an obsession with a young woman my age, but rarely did I see her lookin' my way. I don't think she ever did move up closer to me, so I would bet that she never did hear the pounding of my heartbeat.

The Week’s Final Evening

 Song 782: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Saturday Night by Bay City Rollers, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Near the end of the summer of 1975 I started hearing about how to enjoy the weekend darker hours, and while I personally had no problem spelling the final day of the week, I would bet this song did help some younger listeners get more adept at that. Unlike plenty of others I've known for most of my life, I rarely if ever cared about keeping cool in the summer, but living in the Windy City area at the time, I did not like dealing with the colder months in that region, and during the next winter season, I found out from a TV show about the moderate temperatures of the California Bay City area, which triggered me to start planning a move in that direction. At first I thought I'd head west in the summer of 1976, but then some dental complications made me decide I had to postpone the trip for two years, and I didn't stick my thumb out in the westward direction until July of 1978, when I finally did get to rock it up, roll it up, do it all and have a ball getting some free rides that took me to the Bay City.

Enjoyable Possibility

 Song 781: This week the playlist applauds Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson, Tony Asher and Mike Love, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I did not initially pay much attention to the L.A. shoreline quintet when they first started riding the airwaves, but by the time this attractive question mark rose into the TOP 40 in the summer after my freshman HS year, it felt good to sing along with their suggestions about pleasurable experience. However, I highly doubt I knew the line about how the couple could Hold each other close the whole night through, since the erotic implications there would have made it harder for me to justify my admiration for the devil's music that my folks commonly criticized. Of course now, almost six decades later, it sounds ironic to suggest that it would be nice to be older, but at the end of the day, we can all still say goodnight to each other and pass on a sleep tight thought.

Endless Expression

 Song 780: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's melodic lift Always Have A Song to Sing comes from one of my New Brunswick buddies Spook Handy, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When I first moved from California to Brooklyn in September of 1988, I initially focused on performance spots in NYC, but fairly soon, I found out about folkie gatherings in other nearby places, and I started regularly going to open mics held in a New Brunswick night club that got managed by a Handy guy. I appreciated his tunes as much as he liked mine, and we kept in touch for years. However, after I waved good-bye to Highland Park and headed for upstate NY, I didn't maintain connections with some friends there. It did surprise me, and make me smile, when I got a phone call from Spook a few months ago. After that conversation, I realized that I hadn't yet included him in my playlist, so I decided to feature him at the next appropriate time. When I looked at his YouTube video collection, the title here caught my eye, even though I hadn't heard it before, and giving it a few listens, it really moved me, because all of us singer/songwriter types always, always, always have a song to sing.

Sunlight Traveler

 Song 779: This week the playlist swings to Day Tripper by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the era after the Fab Four rocked my world in February of 1964, I mostly paid attention to them and their fellow British Invaders, but by the time the final month of the following year arrived, I had widened my focus to much of the rest of The Top 40, so this enlightening ride reminded me of the origin of my attraction to heavy rhythms. I had used the lessons the radio taught me to begin writing my own songs, and this particular outing gave me a shining example of how to expand a composition around a single riff. I had begun considering that possibility in the previous summer after hearing about some turning rocks having a lack of Satisfaction (Song 256) and then Paul & Co. gave me a much clearer understanding of how to do that. In fact, having the radio taking me on this ride, it did NOT take me so long to find out how to write my own riff excursions.