An Appealing Teenage Dancing Sensation

Song 461: This week on the playlist you’ll find Sweet Little Sixteen by Chuck Berry, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I knew almost nothing about RnR when the Beatles rocked my world back in the winter of 1964, and I mistakenly thought the Fab Four had invented the form. That didn't start to change until the turn of the 1970s, when a 1950s revival came across the airwaves, and a Rolling Stone subscription began to fill in the blanks for me. Thanks to what I heard and what I read, I soon began to appreciate the significance of this Berry guy. I had previously noticed his name as a songwriter on a couple of Beatles records, and John Lennon's 1975 version of this tune got my attention, but by that time, I had already begun to truly relish the original hit. While this record is now well over 60 years old, I would bet that as long as They're really rockin' in Boston, In Pittsburgh, PA, Deep in the heart of Texas and round the Frisco Bay, All over St. Louis And down in New Orleans, that All the cats still wanna dance with Sweet Little Sixteen.

Not Subject to Time Constraints

Song 460: This week on the playlist you can hear Whenever We Wanted by John Mellencamp, written by Don Covay and Steve Cropper, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When Mellencamp's 11th album arrived in the fall of 1991, buses all over Manhattan had ads featuring the cover, and I liked the way it looked. A few tunes from the record came rippling across the airwaves, including this title track, quickly convincing me to get my own copy of the disc. As an indication of how much I have relished the LP, this marks the third cut from the album to make the playlist: Get a Leg Up is Song 111 and Crazy Ones is Song 285. Back when he released it, JM called WWW one of his best efforts, and at the time, I agreed with his POV, so it surprised me to learn that in more recent years, he has disparaged the project. While it might not mean much to him these days, I still enjoy hearing him sing about a lover who held her breath once for seven minutes And never turned blue and who Used to rest on a bed of burning coals Every single night. 

Repeating a Made-Up Word

Song 459: This week the playlist honors Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf, written by Don Covay and Steve Cropper. My HS record collection consisted entirely of singles, since that was all I could sneak by the parents and grandparents, who strongly disapproved of the devil's music, and most of those hits came second-hand from my best friend's younger brother, who liked to keep up with the top ten, but then often soon lost interest in many of his purchases. Unlike him, I got a lot of pleasure out of those used 45s, including the lesser-known b-sides like this cut, which backed up Magic Carpet Ride (Song 403). The track doesn't have a very deep message, but it does have one that's fun to sing along with, and it does remind movers and shakers to better watch your step and don't step on that banana peel because if your foot should ever hit it, you'll go up to the ceiling, so you can let it hang out, baby, and you can also hang it in, baby - listening to this tune might make you feel like doing either, or both.

Identifying the Proper Recipient for Special Treatment

Song 458: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week the playlist recognizes Somebody to Do That For by fellow former Fast Folkie Ilene Weiss, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I became an instant fan of her work by hearing her perform at Folk City in lower Manhattan one evening in the summer of 1987. The following year, I moved to Brooklyn, and soon became a part of the Fast Folk circle. I enjoyed Ilene's music so much that during the era when Jeff Wilkinson and I ran the Camptown Coffeehouse in Park Slope, I made sure we had one special evening set aside for her to perform. I will also take credit for leaning on Jack Hardy to include her in the 1993 Fast Folk concert, which he did. At both of those memorable gatherings, the audience got the chance to Stand back and receive the rays, watching her glow as out they poured and she warmed up the world that met her gaze, so at least twice she found not just one Somebody to Do That For, but a whole roomful of appreciative recipients.

A Light Touch of Romance

Song 457: This week the playlist comes around to Peaceful Easy Feeling by The Eagles, written by Jack Tempshin, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Hearing the Eagles' debut single take over the airwaves while driving cross-country in the early summer of 1972, I didn't get too excited by the tune, though I did like its country-rock tonality. However, not long after, I starting hearing this cut, which I liked a lot better. I soon learned to play and sing this piece, and it became a regular number that I often shared during music circle gatherings and exchanges. In that era, being in my twenties, I had already learned what a woman can do to your soul, so now and then, I might meet a female and get this feeling that I could know her as a lover and a friend, while also having this voice keep whispering in my other ear, telling me I might never see her again. As a young man, I truly relished the musical Peaceful Easy Feeling of simply following a romantic road wherever it might lead, whether up or down.

An Adventure He Didn’t Ask For

Song 456: This week’s playlist track is Big Time in the Jungle by Old Crow Medicine Show, written by Critter Fuqua, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Back in 2017, when I started a Spotify playlist called Dave Elder's Favorite Anti-war Songs (which you can hear by clicking on the title), I mainly wanted to showcase If I Was You, but soon, a couple of interesting suggestions came my way, this being one. After a single viewing of the YT video, I not only decided to add the tune to the Spotify playlist, but I also added the video to my short list of favorite anti-war song videos. Today I finally got around to creating a YT playlist of that group, calling it Dave Elder's Favorite Anti-war Song Videos (and you can watch that bunch by clicking on the title). That collection now includes a couple of recent recommendations from Facebook queries and replies, as well as this cut. I have seen the story in these lyrics repeated far too many times over the decades - a young man got his life turned upside down and his smile turned into a frown as the bombs started fallin' and they pounded his brain. He didn't ask for a fight or a rumble, but the army man showed up, got him signed up, and then surprised him with a Big Time in the Jungle that he didn't really want or need.

The Bad Guy Wanting Your Respect

Song 455: This week on the playlist you can hear Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after I began my freshman year at NU in the fall of 1969, I began to hear a lot more of The Rolling Stones than I had previously, thanks, primarily, to Hank Neuberger, who lived across the hall from me at Bobb Hall. Hank had a state-of-the-art stereo system, and an extensive LP collection. During that stretch, a large share of fans considered either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones to be at the top of the rock. In that discussion, Hank and I disagreed, and he even said to me at one point that the reason I put The Beatles at #1 was because I hadn't heard as much of the Stones' music as I had of the Fab Four. Over time, with him introducing me to so many truly impressive cuts, including this one (and all the rest of Beggars Banquet), he did succeed, by the end of our freshman year, in bringing me over to his side. Looking back, I would say that Mick and Co. were at the top of their game then, and John, Paul, George and Ringo weren't, but both bands deserved all the attention they got, regardless of which one the listener might rank as #1. The words on this track certainly do resonate today as much as they did 5 decades ago, introducing a man of wealth and taste who has been around for a long, long year and stole many a man's soul and faith - I think I recognize that face, and those horns.