Experts of Destruction

 Song 558: This week on the playlist you’ll find Masters of War by Bob Dylan, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I started becoming a Dylan fan soon after Peter, Paul and Mary brought Blowin' in the Wind to everyone's attention. Over the following years, I kept seeing Bob's name on songs I really liked, such as Mr. Tambourine Man (Song 326) and It Ain't Me Babe, but I didn't get to hear his own voice until I arrived at Northwestern U. in September of 1969. On my first day at the dormitory, I met a fellow student named Smiley who played a BD 33 for me, and I initially didn't care for the sound of his voice, judging its quality as the reason that he had succeeded much more as a writer than a singer. Over the next year, though, I became a major fan, thanks in part to a roommate who would spin his first greatest hits LP quite a bit. At a certain point in that stretch, I added the Freewheelin' disc to my collection, and it soon became a favorite, making me appreciate Mr. Zimmerman even more. This cut graces that album, and before long, I had rated it as one of the best antiwar songs of all time, and possibly THE BEST. That being the case, I decided to add it to the list now because today, 4/4/21, marks the 17th year commemoration of the death of Casey Sheehan in Iraq. I learned of his demise in July of 2005 when his mother Cindy shared the story on a podcast, and included a poem written about Casey by her daughter Carly. Hearing this moving story and poem inspired me to finish an antiwar song I had started, which became Song for Casey. I posted that Elder Statesman track on SoundCloud today, and you can hear it by clicking on the title. I offer my sympathy to Cindy, Carly, and the rest of their family, for their loss, and I'd say that all the money the Masters of War made from their Iraq destruction clearly will never buy back their souls.

Southern Royalty

 Song 557: This week the playlist recognizes Mississippi Queen by Mountain, written by Leslie West, Corky Laing, Felix Pappalardi and David Rea, and you can find an entertaining YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this spinner hit the airwaves at the turn of the 1970s, my knowledge of the RnR landscape was greatly expanding, thanks in part to the amazing LP collection belonging to a guy named Hank Neuberger who lived in the room across the hall from me at the N.U. dormitory, and since I had so much catching up to do, I didn't always notice the latest chart toppers that came along in that era, but this cut got a lot of airplay over the next year or two, and at some point it did cross my radar, and I felt it deserved all of the attention that it had already accumulated. The quartet rightly got credit for playing a major role in creating the heavy metal sound that moved the rocking needle during that decade, so when guitarist, singer and group founding member Leslie West died in December of 2020, the hard rock scene lost one of its original leading lights. While not everyone has seen a Mississippi Queen, probably most of us have known at least one dancer who moved better on wine, and, if you know what I mean, that can be a gratifying way of gettin' your kicks.

Shared Intentional Conduct

 Song 556: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's entertaining dive The Phenomenology Sing-Along comes from another of my Fast Folk colleagues, Hugh Blumenfeld, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. He performed this chuckler during my era with the group, and I definitely would have found it quite amusing at the time, but I actually only came across it recently. That said, it quickly made me smile, as it obviously did for most, if not all, of the audience who got to participate in the live recording, which now commemorates a comical moment at the Postcrypt Coffeehouse in Colombia University on an evening in the early 1990s. I will confess that if Jean Paul Sartre did describe phenomenology and existentialism as nearly-parasitic ideologies of Marxism in his critique of dialectical reason, I don't know if he was serious or just teasing, but I can certainly agree with Hugh that it sounds like right on phenomenology.

Accompanying the Villain

 Song 555: This week the playlist features Runnin' With the Devil by Van Halen, written by Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this rumbler came along in the late spring of 1978, I was getting ready to make a major move from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area, and so, when I jumped out on that road that summer, standing next to the pavement with my thumb pointed westward, I could have felt like I was Runnin' With the Devil, especially since, as an adult, I had embraced the devil's music that my parents and grandparents disparaged and condemned. I would at times parody their POV that evil Commies/Russians crafted the rock backbeat as a way to control the minds of America's youth, and supposedly got musicians from the lower levels of our society (a sly reference to those dark-skinned soul performers) to act as useful idiot puppets. I might sometimes playfully pretend to go evil in the name of RnR, but in reality, early on, I had concluded that the basic rock values of peace and love that enliven the form align more closely to that Jesus fellow than to the Lucifer guy. These days, we all know that the simple life ain't so simple, but we also don't hear much about folks living at a pace that kills.

An Amorous Halt

 Song 554: This week the playlist applauds Stop! In The Name Of Love by The Supremes, written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Mary Wilson, who performed as a member of this trio back when they released this hit in the winter of 1965, would have celebrated her 75th birthday yesterday if she hadn't left the land of the living back in February, so it seemed like an appropriate moment to add this chart topper to the list. I don't remember exactly when this cut first got my attention, but it definitely enlivened my HS days, and I quickly learned the lines well enough to sing along whenever it came to my ears. Now, in the era of social distancing, we find ourselves having to Stop! In The Name Of Love rather than visit those we care about to share our love and affection, leading to many more secluded nights for lots of folks. Even big city dwellers see a lot less people walk down the street these days. How will this end? I won't claim to have an answer - my advice is just to think it over. Think it over!

Observe Yours Truly

 Song 553: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Watch Me by Lorrie Morgan, written by Tom Shapiro and Gary Burr, and you can find a really entertaining YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the early 1990s, the NYC country music radio station introduced me to Ms. Morgan's rambles, and I soon added to my collection the LP that glowed with this hit as its title track. That vinyl disc became a regular spinner on my turntable, and this marks her second appearance on this list, with her follow-up single What Part of No (which also shows up on that 33) shining as Song 499 - you can find the blog about that cut here. Both of these jaunts express an assertive POV that Lorrie conveys in a strongly convincing and amusing way - need I say more? Unfortunately, in the current pandemic situation, there are probably a lot of people who might want to say, The more I needed, the less you gave, I guess you thought that it worked that way. Hopefully we'll reach a point in the near future where the major issues get resolved in a positive way - please don't tell me that it can't be done.

Forgo Vicious Behavior

 Song 552: This week the playlist comes around to Don't Be Cruel by Elvis Presley, written by Otis Blackwell, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Last week I again shared the story about how The Beatles rocked my world in February of 1964, as they did for so many other folks, although in my case it occurred a week later than it did for most fans. The Fab Four stayed at the top of my rocker list through my junior high and high school stretch, and in my senior year a biography of the group came along which I relished, but which also had some surprising revelations for me. It astonished me to read how all four initially got their rock inspiration from Mr. Presley. At the time, the only spinner of his that I knew was Hound Dog (Song 433), which happened to be the A side of the single that had this gem on its B side. I knew nothing about EP's contributions to the RnR scene until the early 1970s, when a 1950s revival came across the rocking radio air waves and my Rolling Stone subscription filled in the blanks. In response, I soon acquired a Presley greatest hits LP, and I treasured that 33. It got plenty of spins on my turntable, and I clearly understood by the time of his 1977 demise what the music world lost at that sad moment. These days, as the pandemic question marks continue to hang in the air, some of us might feel like asking why should we be apart? We still don't have the answer, but perhaps at some point not too far down the road, we'll see that the future looks bright ahead.