Goodbye to the Island

 Song 669: This week the playlist comes around to Jamaica Farewell by Harry Belafonte, written by Irving Burgie, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This enticing ride started grabbing everyone's ears not long after I began kindergarten, and I might very well have heard it there, though I don't remember specifically when and if I did. When the following summer arrived, I got to spend time with friends in the playground areas of the kindergarten and nearby elementary school, and sometimes someone would bring along a radio, so we would get to hear popular songs as we played our games and rode the swings, and this anthem surely enlivened those activities multiple times. At some point at least once in the next few years when I attended that elementary school, the class grouped together and sang this tune in unison. I might have even heard this gem on the family car radio, since it would not have bothered the adults the way an Elvis hit would have. I decided to add the shiner to the collection a few weeks ago when the sad news came along about Mr. Belafonte leaving the land of the living, but he did manage to pass his 96th birthday, unlike Mr. Presley, who didn't even get halfway there, so it might be sad to say Harry was on his way, and that he won't be back, but we can thank him for moments in life he gave us where there were sounds of laughter everywhere.

Disabled Luxury Roadster

 Song 668: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's engaging ramble Broke Down Limousine comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues, David Hamburger, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This marks his first appearance in this collection. I hooked up with the FF crowd soon after I moved to Brooklyn in the fall of 1988. When 1994 rolled around, I got a bit distant from the FF circle when I moved to nearby NJ, but I still spent some time in Manhattan with a trio of Elderadoes putting together my Country Drivin' CD. At a certain point, proceeding with that project, I decided I'd like to have a pedal steel guitar tonality enliven one of the tracks, and I appreciated having my FF friend Hamburger add that sound to As Long as Merle is Still Haggard (which you can hear and see a YouTube video of by clicking on the title). Around that time I lived on the farm that appears in the video, with the older man in it being my landlord. Then, in early 1996 I had another FF connection when I began working with David Seitz, who soon became my studio partner, and who I continue working with to this day. At the time, he did the FF recording sessions, and I started doing the FF graphics. In doing so, I got to hear the FF version of this intriguing meandering ride which appeared on issue 7 of volume 8. When you feel like going nowhere, it won't cost a nickel to ride in this particular vehicle, and you need no license and no ignition key, so apparently it's the perfect ride. From my perspective, in my own song Steely Blues, which I just posted a lyric video of today on YouTube, and which you can hear and see by clicking on the title, I explain about the only time I ever rode in a long black limousine, so that's what I have to say about the subject, but I guess if you got to ride the storm out, evidently the best way to do so is to ride in style.

Short Hispanic Mover

Song 667: This week the playlist applauds Little Latin Lupe Lu by The Kingsmen, written by Bill Medley, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after the Beatles rocked my world, I started hearing, and paying more attention to, a bunch of other rockers, mostly from the British invasion but with a few notable exceptions, such as this dancing anthem. I don't recall whether I just heard this one on the radio or if I had a nearby friend who would spin the 45, but I did get to hear it quite a bit during the warmer months of 1964 as it rambled around the charts, and when I did catch it, it really made me feel like moving. Of course, growing up in a fundamentalist home, I had to ignore the lyrical implications about dance steps, because that religious sect judged dancing to be an evil action. However, if you wanna do the duck or if you wanna do the twist today, that won't bother me, and it wouldn't have done so for any of my independent adult life - do what you do. 

Consuming Dudes

 Song 666: This week on the playlist you’ll find Maneater by Hall & Oates, written by Sara Allen, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this Song 666 arrived in December of 1982, we had gotten about halfway through the first term of POTUS 40 who I labelled as President 666, because those were his name numbers. To be clear, his VP, who later became POTUS 41, and who I now refer to as HW, I could have called President 6764. Having grown up in a fundamentalist home, the number 666 referred to the mark of the beast, and I got warned during my childhood that possibly this Biblical monster might one day occupy the White House. I soon noticed after the 1980 election that no one else ever connected Ronald with his 3 numbers, and fundamentalists viewed him as a saint, although I could tell he never spent any time in a religious setting. Around the time the H & O duo started warning everyone about a ravenous female figure, I got some bad news about the young woman that I had tried in vain to embrace for three years - she had gotten lit up by a different guy, and I knew at that point that I could not spark her the way he had. I had been in it for love but I didn't get too far - I thought the beauty was there but whatever mind over matter I might have had, she did not chew me up because she had no taste for me.

Feline Vines

 Song 665: This week the playlist features Pussywillows, Cat-Tails by Gordon Lightfoot, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. At the start of my sophomore college year in the fall of 1970, I slowly expanded my LP collection of fellow singer/songwriter types. I had essentially evolved my own personal creative musical style during that summer, and along the school year stretch, I got to hear and know a lot more about some leading folkies. After I added the Did She Mention My Name? disc to my batch, I gave it plenty of spins on the turntable, and the Gordon guy probably influenced my sounding direction the most, although a certain Zimmerman person also played a major role in it as well. Over the frigid Chicago-area winter months, I got shivering and quivering a few times, but I also began an unexpected romance when my lips touched the soft lips of someone who I had been just friends with previously. Then, as the warm breath of spring started to come along, the fling surprisingly ended, but despite that sad development, I would continue remembering the promise of spring. Now, 5 decades later, I can still appreciate the inspiration coming from melodic fingertips resting in my soul. On a side note, this marks the second appearance of a Did She Mention My Name? gem in this bunch - I highlighted Boss Man as Song 614 back in early May of last year.

Bright Firebolt

 Song 664: This week the playlist recognizes White Lightning by George Jones, written by J. P. Richardson, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During the 1960s, as I went through my second decade, my family would regularly visit the Ohio relatives every other summer, and on our sojourns to Bowling Green, I would get to listen to some of country music's most popular songs from that era, including this striking shiner. I knew that the lyrics on this wild ride referred to an illegal form of alcohol, and my fundamentalist parents and grandparents would have morally disapproved of such a beverage, but when the tune came along in the middle of a bunch of other ones, I soon figured out that if I didn't draw attention to the piece's subject matter, my folks would probably never notice it. I had not known until I researched the history of the hit that its writer had used the name The Big Bopper as a performer, and that he did not get to know about Mr. Jones' success with the number because he had died a few days before GJ's record got released. This particular jaunt inspired a ramble that I wrote in my twenties, back in the 1970s, that I titled Moonshine Man, and you can hear a rough cut video of that song on YouTube by clicking on the title. I personally have never felt a desire to taste that powerful stuff, though I understand why some people do, but in my case, I'd rather not have my eyes bugged out and my face turned blue.

Basically West Coast Lodging

Song 663: This week the playlist comes around to Hotel California by Charles Berthoud, written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glen Frey, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When, a few weeks ago, I discovered on a FaceBook post this remarkable FRETLESS BASS version of The Eagles' hit that I featured here last week, I realized that I hadn't yet added the original to the collection, so last Sunday I set the stage for this UNREAL-sounding followup. As someone who has routinely played a fretted bass, both onstage and in a studio, but has rarely had hands on a fretless one, I can truly appreciate the soaring directions that the player takes the song's melody in here. When the first rendition of the west coast resort anthem arrived, I had plans to head that way, but could not do so for about a year and a half, due to unresolved dental problems. Soon after I did get to the East Bay in 1978, I met a singer/songwriter colleague named Bob Nichols who would become a close friend. Then, three years later I would get to move into the Berkeley home that he managed, and I resided there for the remaining seven years of my CA decade. Bob played bass for his band, and spending as much time around him as I did, I soon learned THE BASSICS myself. I would figure out the bass parts for my own songs, and I would also have a unique experience as a bass player in a country band during my final CA year - a tale which I plan to at some point share in amusing short-story form. Having played plenty of bass myself, I know just how UNREAL this recording sounds - this could be Heaven as well.