Farewell to Amber Pavement

 Song 695: This week the playlist recognizes Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During my younger years in the 1950s and 1960s, my family and I every year got to see the famous film The Wizard of Oz on TV, I think around this time in the autumn. As soon as we learned the date that it would appear, we all made plans to watch it. When Elton started catching people's ears with this engaging saunter back in the spring of 1973, those of us who had regularly seen Judy Garland strolling along with a scarecrow, a tin man and a cowardly lion as they tried to get to the Emerald City understood the suggestive sarcastic message conveyed by the hit's lyrics. Throughout that year, I lived with my wife in an apartment in southern Evanston, so no one could plant me in a penthouse at the time, and I had already decided that my future also had to lie beyond the yellow brick road.

Tasty Romance

Song 694: This week on the playlist you can hear Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express, written by Arthur Resnick and Joey Levine, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Since a holiday arrives this week that people in the U.S. commonly honor with a shared family banquet, it makes sense to have a spicy anthem that celebrates savory nutrition become the song of the week. This appetizing treat came along in the early spring of my junior HS year, and it didn't take long to learn the chorus lines. I hadn't known what to make of it when, the year before, the Fab Four and other British invaders started heading in the psychedelic direction, and so at that time, I appreciated even more the hits of the era that followed the previous styles, including this delicious feast. As silly as it may seem, love can actually taste sweeter than sugar, and thereby, love can satisfy.

Lively Transportation

 Song 693: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Rocket by The Smashing Pumpkins, written by Billy Corgan, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Given how a certain holiday arrived and ended a couple of weeks ago, this seems like an appropriate moment to share a creative ramble by Smashing Pumpkins, in light of how much people in various parts of the U.S. have lately spent some time pulverizing large decorated round orange squashes. When this fiery carrier took off in the summer of 1993, I had lived in Brooklyn for a few years, and while I don't recall seeing the entertaining video that came along with it, I did get picked up by the moving sounds that it rolls and rocks around. In the evening, when the moon is out and the stars invite, I think I'll see if something takes off tonight. Whatever happens, though, I doubt I shall ever be free of those voices inside me.

Switchboard Manager

 Song 692: This week the playlist applauds Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels) by Jim Croce, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the warmer months of 1972 unfolded, my romantic partner and I spent a lot of time traveling, hitching a few times and also driving her parent's car on at least one major excursion. During those journeys, we got to hear a bunch of radio hits, and although the majority of chart toppers in that era didn't move me, a few of them did get me going along with their rambles, including a handful by a new guy with the initials JC, and this marks his first appearance in this collection. When he needed some assistance from a switchboard technician, it sounded pretty convincing that he had overcome the blow and had learned to take it well, so the telephone assistant probably did give him the number when she/he could find it. Sadly, just before the summer of the following year came to an end, as my wife and I lived in an apartment on the south part of Evanston, Jim's life came to an end via a plane crash, so whether or not he got the number, the company obviously did keep the dime.

Chimney Flashes

 Song 691: This week the playlist features Smokestack Lightning by the Yardbirds, written by Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf), and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. With the final day of October about to arrive in two days, this striking blues rocker seemed like an appropriate ride to feature now. The Mike Harrison version (song 158) sparked my regard in 1972 and because it did, I soon found out about this 1964 Yardbirds cover of it and also the original rendition by songwriter Howlin' Wolf from January of 1956. As someone who grew up in a house close to a railroad line and developed an interest in trains at a young age, I immediately understood the implications of the tune's title. However, the engines that I saw passing by in the era of this version no longer had smokestacks or attached coal cars, so the flashes of lightning I had seen had already become a spark of my memory, and where I lived, I would never see them no more. On the other hand, my family did do visits to a few tourist railroads, such as the one in Strasburg, PA, so then I did get to see a few flashes shining like gold and I got to go for a ride with family members. The trains still roll on the tracks in Strasburg, so there's no need to say good-bye to them.

Top Dark Card

 Song 690: This week the playlist recognizes Ace of Spades by Motörhead, written by Eddie Clarke, Lemmy Kilmister and Phil Taylor, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As I began my third year living in Oakland, CA, in October of 1980, a notable new rocker hit the airwaves and got my housemate Doug and I to ride along with it. In the enjoyable moderate weather of the East Bay, we often spent time on the small front porch of our place while listening to the radio. The card that the singer focuses on here had earned a reputation as the key dead man's hand element in the late 19th century, and still gripped that status 104 years after a certain Wild Bill fellow reportedly grasped such a card at the moment when a bullet ended his life. Interestingly enough, I have a piece called Uptown Down that will appear on my next album CD Rock Ave. (which I hope to finish in about a month) that has a line where I ask the question How do you bet on snake eyes? While there are probably other songs that use that term, this one here is the first other one I've found that does mention it. In this case, snake eyes watching you might tell you that gambling's for fools, but when you play the game, you win some AND you lose some - that's how it goes.

Freshly-adorned Aged Footwear

 Song 689:  Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's lively stroll Brand New Laces (Same Old Shoes) comes from my Boston-area buddy Terry Kitchen, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. It appears on his 2021 CD Lost Songs, which he sent me a copy of soon after he got it released. While Don't Kick the Cat (Song 584) got the biggest share of my attention during the initial spins of the disc, this ramble also stirred some notice as well, with Rebecca Lynch doing the lead vocal on it, instead of Terry. There's a thousand explanations for his absence at the mic, maybe there's a hundred reasons why he couldn't vocalize, and I don't yet know the details, so right now I can't say who's the one out of time.