Song for the Holiday: Get Here

With the Thanksgiving Day holiday almost upon us, and being the busiest travel day of the year, it always reminds me of those trying to get home. When I think about my family and the holiday, being home for it means a great deal to me. As it does for others who have to travel to make it happen. Whenever my wife and I roam anywhere, it is my mate who the kids and I follow to our destination. She is the sightseeing one between the two of us, and loves getting us there. Me? While I have a fondness for journeying with the gang, it's my role for getting us home, together.

This post has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

Never Die Young

As close as a personal motto as there is in song for me:

We were ring-around-the-rosy children

They were circles around the sun

Never give up, never slow down

Never grow old, never ever die young

Synchronized with the rising moon

Even with the evening star

They were true love written in stone

They were never alone, they were never that far apart

And we who couldn't bear to believe they might make it

We got to close our eyes

Cut up our losses into doable doses

Ration our tears and sighs

You could see them on the street on a saturday night

Everyone used to run them down

They're a little too sweet, they're a little too tight

Not enough tough for this town

We couldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole

No, it didn't seem to rattle at all

They were glued together body and soul

That much more with their backs up against the wall

Oh, hold them up, hold them up

Never do let them fall

Prey to the dust and the rust and the ruin

That names us and claims us and shames us all

I guess it had to happen someday soon

Wasn't nothing to hold them down

They would rise from among us like a big baloon

Take the sky, forsake the ground

Oh, yes, other hearts were broken

Yeah, other dreams ran dry

But our golden ones sail on, sail on

To another land beneath another sky

Have a great weekend, folks.

Friday Forgotten Song: Riders on the Storm by The Doors

Two things drove me to write this. The first started the idea fermenting in my sub-conscious (something my wife thinks happens way too often and too much below the surface for her comfort). The second simply inspired it to emerge via my fingers on the keyboard. I'll start with the latter since it deserves the shout-out. My good friend (and the only person I know) from one of those tiny northeastern states published a wonderful music post recently. SFF (from the Musings of a Sci-Fi Fanatic blog) wrote eloquently about the 80's group Cutting Crew and their important Broadcast album from 1986. It's a recommended read. While his primary focus remains all things science fiction, I really enjoy his insights and ruminations on music.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

It's New For Everyone Else

Image via Wikipedia

You know you're getting old when a song comes on the radio (or when a music video shows up on cable) and you figure it's some new artist's cover of a famous song from your bygone youth. Then you realize, it's not. This has happened way too often for me now. An entirely new song and lyrics makes its way into your ears and head. And all you say to yourself is, "Wait a minute! They lifted that from so-and-so!" Yeah, I know artists and producers will sample from other older, great(er) tunes. I don't know if it's suppose to be an homage or not, but it happens too often for my thoughts. I suspect it's less than tribute-filled and more that they hope you don't notice while your kids think it great and spend your money to buy it. Will Smith's '97 Men in Black title song lifted freely from Forget Me Nots from 1987 by Patrice Rushen (who just happens to be another native Angeleno that's the same age as me, just way more talented). I remember I just about did what my friends Pop Culture Nerd and Christine refer to as a spit-take when I first heard Changes by Tupac Shakur (since 1986's The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and The Range is among my favorites). What did it to me tonight was catching the 2006 song Save Room by John Legend:

It is a good song and has interesting lyrics. But, those of us with long memories will instantly pick up on the chords and recognize them from the 1968 track Stormy by the Classics IV (and featuring the late Dennis Yost):

To be clear, I don't have problems with other artists covering these songs. In fact, Santana did a wonderful update of this song that I really admire from 1978. It's the so-called sampling that's been going on that I have issue with. In another ten years, I'm pretty damn sure label producers will be thrilled that folks my age will be hard-pressed to recall the old tunes that they'll continue to lift for their music sales while barely giving lip service toward the original -- but at least I'm putting a thought down on this today. Do you have any beloved songs that have been rip-offed?

We Could Only Go So Far... Songs for my Children

The first song is by way of author Harlan Coben and Twitter, and the others are those that remind me of my children:

My Six

Image by 嘉莉-咖哩 via Flickr

I discovered a wonderful post today, titled "Six Songs", by Moondancer on her blog, Just.....a wee bit. It is a sublime and eloquent piece speaking to the power of music upon memory, and one's emotions. I'm in wholehearted agreement with her on this, and I very much recommend her post. Outside of the potent sense of smell, music/song has always been a memory trigger for me, as well.

If you gave it some thought, what would your six songs be.....

And since she graciously asked, at this moment, the list of six that I'd put together would be:

It's All in the Game (1958), my mother's favorite song; and when I hear it even now after all of these years later, I cannot help but think of the wonderful woman who bore me...

A Hard Day's Night (1964), I still can recollect fondly sitting in a darkened theater taking the Beatles in as a 10 yr. old. Although I'd heard songs on the radio by the Fab Four, it was this movie and song that first struck and mesmerized me. And I'm still within its impact.

It's Too Late (1971), my junior year of high school and it was this song that marked a shift in my heart's outlook (and the girl that was a H.S. senior at the time shall remain nameless, here--as my wife eventually reads all of my posts).

Dust in the Wind (1977), this song played on the radio as I left drove home from St. Francis Medical Center in March '78 after I learned my mother wouldn't be with us for much longer... Though I wanted desperately to change or turn off the radio, somehow I couldn't.

Silhouette (1988), the same year I courted my future bride, this song always seemed to pop up on the radio. The CD eventually found its way into our music collection before our engagement, and it was played at our wedding reception.

Don't Fear the Reaper (1976), this song introduced the concept of the air guitar to my first born when he was a barely a toddler some 20 years after it was released. Our living room jam sessions right before bedtime, with the volume up, had my wife giving us the weirdest of looks, too!

My thanks goes to Moondancer for giving me a chance to the flex the nostalgia gene once again (as my wife groans about this somewhere out in the ether), and for her heartfelt post.

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