King of the Road

 Technnically, this was not the first song in my head this morning.  I have not had a song in my head in the morning, the premise for this blog, for six days.  I am worried that my mental functions are changing.  I am almost sixty-one years breathing.  My mom recently died with dementia as a main cause. Although I am still challenging my mind with new ideas and processes, I cannot remember shit.

Many years ago I was introduced to the concept of "pro-active interference".  As I remember it, (hopefully)  generally current ability to remember things is related to what memories you already have.  It is a filing system issue.  There was a great, and I mean great example demonstrated on the tv show "Married....With Children where it was discovered that the daughter (a ditsy blond) had 100% recall of memory and information about a subject but with a limited amount of space in her brain.  The father put her on a game show to win a bunch of money if she could answer all the questions correctly.  Well, Her limit was something like 50 questions and they loaded her up with the all possible answers.  Anyway, an instant before she went on the show someone asked her "another" question causing her to push one question and answer out of her brain.  A classic proactive interference reference. 

[ A prominent theory of forgetting at the behavioral level is anchored in the phenomenon of interference, or inhibition, which can be either retroactive or proactive. In retroactive inhibition, new learning interferes with the retention of old memories; in proactive inhibition, old memories interfere with the retention of new learning. Both phenomena have great implications for all kinds of human learning.  This article was most recently revised and updated by Robert Lewis, Assistant Editor. https://www.britannica.com/science/memory-psychology/Forgetting#ref386914  ]

 So, allotting for interference, and general apathy, lack of good sleep and diet, I hope I am not losing my mind because now, lately I rarely have a song in my head when I wake up.

I read this recently.  "The best advice I’ve ever gotten about thinking came from a private-company CEO who has a thirty-year track record that’s up there with Warren Buffett’s. One day he said to me, “Shane, most people don’t actually think. They just take their first thought and go.”"

The important word is "first".  Now, I am a "look while I am leaping" kind of guy.  First thoughts are actual preceded by  action.  Like a horse or a cat's flight reflex.  It is autonomically controlled.  "I will figure out how to land on the way down after I leap off a cliff kind of thing.  It has served me fairly well. 

So, back to King of the Road.  My dad was a huge Roger Miller fan and I followed that lead.  His songs, Roger's, were a big part of my early music life.  We had the old furniture sized turntable with record storage and the latest in high fidelity speakers, record changers and needles.  I was allowed to play records if I was careful to drop the needle cautiously, always hold the record correctly without touching the lines and put the album back in the sleeve when done with it. 

I did all of those things. 

"The Power of Love"

This is a 1985 single by Huey Lewis and the News, written for and featured in the 1985 blockbuster film Back to the Future. It gave the band their first number-one hit on the U.S charts.

I do not have anything good to say about this song or Huey Lewis and the News.  Well, the name of the band is not too band, not creative but a nice ringing in your ear kind of name.  Even though I just made that negative statement, I have found myself very interested in the band and their songs.  It is a sickness.  I would compare them to the band "Chicago" getting stuck in a cotton candy machine and still producing songs, sticky, gooey songs.  When I catch myself singing these songs I feel like a mosquito getting stuck in tree sap.

I think it has something to do with Huey's hair.  I have the same feeling about "Loverboy's"  or McEnroe's headband.  The reason I am blogging in the first place is to get songs and feelings out of my head so I can more easily deal with the shit show of a life in the desolation that is the United States of America.  It is not working lately.

"Paint It Black"

 This (originally released as "Paint It, Black") is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Jointly credited to the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was first released as a single on 6 May 1966, and later included as the opening track to the US version of their 1966 album Aftermath.  

Some interesting fthings about this song are that it was created in 1966.  This song is such a progressive, fresh sound for a song today and a fine example of Mick Jagger's voice instrumentation.  He had a way with some phrases, didn't he.  It would have been fun working on this song.  Also, I think that when Ciara covered it as a sound track to the remake of WestWorld, you can see what an incredibly created and skilled song it really is. 

I remember that in the movie, "Taken", they had a green door, I think.  I thought of this song when I saw the green door scene.  Because details like color don't matter when creativity is rearing its head. 



 

"Foolin"

This is a 1983 single by British Hard rock band Def Leppard from their multi-platinum album Pyromania. When released as a single later that year, it reached #9 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #28 on the US Billboard Hot 100.^[1]

Is anybody out there, anybody there
Does anybody wonder, anybody care

This sort of hits on Rule #2:  Song must have the angst or pain of growing up.

This rule encompasses Def Leppard.  They also have Rule #7 covered with the great name and unusual spelling.  

Rock on.

"Happy Together"

This is a song by American rock band the Turtles from their third studio album Happy Together (1967). The song was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, arranged by Chip Douglas, and produced by Joe Wissert.  I do not really know much about the Turtle but I really get into this song.  It feels to me like something Jackson Browne would write.  It is just conversational lyrics set to a really nice beat. 

I remember this song was on that mix tape my friend  Kary created I guess.  We listened to it as we were dragging main street in his Ford Custom before it blew a piston through the block.  At least that is what he said happened.  I had a copy of the tape in my 8-track player.  These songs from the mid-sixties rock and roll bands gave me an idea of love and longing.  It was great to be trolling for chicks on Main street thinking we were all bad and stuff while listening to :

So happy together! 
 I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life....

For kids that have no concept of the rest of their lives, what a great song.  For kids that cannot see where they are going to get the next 50 cents for two gallons of gas enabling them to drag main another twenty times, what an appropriate song.  The big future thing when we were in high school was the Bicentennial in two very distant years, two hundred year anniversary of the United States  and waiting for the  Y2K and George Orwell.  

George was correct by the way.

With a Little Help from My Freinds

This is a song by the English rock band the Beatles (def.  ones who have beat) from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

The song I heard in my head was the Joe Cocker version originally done at Woodstock in 1968.  The version I listened to had Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) on the guitar solo.   After recording the song, Cocker and record producer Denny Cordell brought it to Paul McCartney, who later said of the recording, "it was just mind blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful for him for doing that."  I know I have heard many music guys and gals say they were much more satisfied as a song writer than as a performer.  That is a paraphrase as a matter of course because just about anyone could say it more succinctly than I did. 

I have said several times in my life that I am amazed when people take an idea, turn it around, inside out and present it in a completely different way, sometimes better than the oringinal version of the idea. 

That cleared it up.

"Hold On Loosely"

 This is a 1981 rock song by 38 Special and the first track from their fourth studio album Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. Released as the lead single from the album, the song reached No. 3 on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart and No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It received a ton of airplay in the south.  I cannot say everywhere else.  Southern Rock was sweeping the country in 1981 and there was plenty of talent to go around especially from the Van Zant family.  I never really was all in for 38 Special.  The music sounded a little too over-produced to me.  I first heard that phrase "over-produced" in a George Martin interview about some work he did for one of Paul McCartney's solo efforts.  He said "Please don't tell me it was over-produced" about the effort.

Hold on Loosely was played for many years and too many times.  I think that if it would have been released in 1991 instead of 1981 it may not have even been a hit song.  It violated one of my song rules, #4 which is:  Keep it simple.  Some of the old Irish limericks have 39 verses or more.  Now I understand the purpose was to tell a story probably before most people could read or afford a book but a song must KISS it.  By the way, rule #6 is: Use historical references in the song so that people will not think your band is just a bunch of uneducated crack goofs trying to get a piece of ass.  The rule is technically not that descriptive but you get the idea.

This song did use rule #3: Use catchy phrases your grandparents could possibly have used.  This usage was a little bit direct but ok.

I always wondered if there was a song that went, "What else is a dog to do......Bury the bone!  

"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad"

 is a power ballad^[1] performed by the American musician Meat Loaf. It is a track off his 1977 album Bat Out of Hell, written by Jim Steinman.  The Japanese release changes the title of the song to use a percentage, translating it as "66% is good enough".  I find translating of things one of the most interesting aspects of human existence. 

Meat Loaf is quite a story in himself.  Jim Steinman is like the man who releases the hounds in Cool Hand Luke.  What I mean by that is, well, I am not sure what I mean but those two were a great team that sold gobs of records.    Yesterday I had a psychological training day and it is still effecting my brain. Music was not part of it.  I did not have any new songs in my head this morning.  This post was from Friday's morning and I the weekend is a blur. 

I have listened to several Meat Loaf songs over the those days and his voice and the arrangements are so entertaining.  I guess that is the point.

I think.....

Papa Gene's Blues

I found it, and I am ashamed.  I did not remember that it was the Monkees who performed it.   Peter Tork died the other day and I thought of him and Davey Jones having passed. 

"I have no more than I did before
But now I've got all that I need
For I love you and I know you love me"   

Songwriters: Michael Nesmith

Classic Nesbit.  I saw the Monkees in concert a while back and Mickey always made a point of telling which songs Mike wrote.  They did a string of them and his music is very intricate but the songs are so skillfully arranged and presented that they seem quite innocent and simple.  In fact, they all were quite musical contrary to the rumors.

My daughter was a big fan and we listened to them in the New Smyrna band shell thingy.  There were these really attractive 45 year old babes in front of us.  I was watching them and their movements exclusively and listening to the music.  It was great.

Like most things New, Smyrna, York, Hampshire, England, Rochelle, Brunswick, Hebrides, etc, there must be an old smyrna, york, etc, and there is.   Was it always called New York, or was it called York and people kept getting confused as to which York they were talking about.  " What do you mean shipping costs will be $37 thousand dollars?, no, no  new York, not the old York."  There is a road called Old Cheney Highway so I suppose there was another Cheney Highway and possibly there is a New Cheney Highway.  Maybe after a road is around a while it gets the tag, Old, like a bridge or something.  Then there is New South Wales in Australia which opens up a whole roomful of nonsense reasonings.  Is that to be confused with Old North Wales, not in Australia.  I check Wales, a country in the United Kingdon and there is a desgnation of a North Wales but no South Wales even though luckily there is a north part and a south part.  But what neuroid thought it was necessary to designate a "new"  and "south" Wales in Australia?

Rock on.

"Alone"

 This is a song composed by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. It first appeared via Steinberg and Kelly's 1983 pet project, I-Ten, on Taking a Cold Look. It was later recorded by Valerie Stevenson and John Stamos, in their roles as Lisa Copley and Gino Minelli, on the original soundtrack of the CBS sitcom Dreams in 1984.  (I have no memory of this one). American rock band Heart, recorded and released it in their 1987 album Bad Animals, this version was a number-one US and Canadian hit that year. In 2007 Celine Dion recorded it for her album Taking Chances.

I only remember the version by Heart.  I actually woke up with another song in my head but I know it is from the early rock and roll days but I cannot find it on the web.  I have what I think is the end of the hook, "Cause I love you and I know you love me".  Regardless, before I could cement the thought, the Heart song crashed in and for the most part saved me from frustration.  Never fear, I dredged up the frustration this morning and now am searching the internet for answers.  The trail is leading to lots of rabbit holes.  Heart members did not write the song, Mark Andes name came up in the liner notes.  Mark was a member of Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne also with Jay Ferguson,  Firefall and then Heart.  All groups had hit songs while Mark was there.  

Mark Andes opens up another industry rabbit hole of mine.  Having come from a non-music family.   Couldn't carry a tune in a bucked as my dad would say, I notice easily how entire families have musical ability.  I remember the Osborne twins when I was in high school which by the way is changing its mascot name from "Redmen" because it is I guess deemed derogatory, when in fact it was selected to create inclusion of the local Paiute indian reservation people and "Redmen" was always a symbol of strength and power.  Interesting side light which is distinguished from a rabbit hole by its importance and distance from the original universe. All the way back to the top,  Mark's brother, Matthew played guitar as part of the Jo Jo Gunne (follows the rock and roll great name thing).  Of all my friends prior to high school, I did not know if any of them played an instrument.    All, and I mean all of them in high school did.  

Yes it was different states of locations and minds.

"A Whiter Shade of Pale"

This song is the debut single by the British rock band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967.  United Kingdom performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited in 2004 recognized it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years.^[8] Also in 2004, Rolling Stone placed "A Whiter Shade of Pale" 57th on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  Enough said about this song, it is exceptional in all respects.  From Wikipedia

The group Procol Harum like all things fractal had a guy on guitar named Robin Trower who went on to Bridge of Sighs stardom. 

This brings up the most fascinating aspects of the music industry, and probably all "developing" industries.  I know it is the same with coaches in the sporting world, and I know it is true in the evangelical christian world, a nucleus of talent gets started with a band, lets select the Yardbirds from London in the early 1960s.  Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck all came through the band along with many of the other talented people associated with Cream, Led Zeppelin and Beck's band.  It was the London pipeline and it branched out to the gratitude of the rock and roll world. 

In the evangelical world there was Corrie Ten Boom who was a lady that  survived the Holocaust and became an inspirations to many angelical preachers that followed.  In the sports world there are old legendary coaches, Bryant etc. who developed players and coaches that now dominate the football world.  Baseball, basketball, all the same.

Where am I going, I am not sure.  I just wanted to say those things because they were on my mind.

Dance the Night Away

I am completely embarrassed to even mention this song but my blog's current mission and directive is to report what song is playing in my head when I first wake up in the morning.  Morning happened to be a 3:30 am when I woke up with this song glaring in my head.  I think it woke me up.  It is like my foil hat fell off and the asimulators got through my secondary bio-force-field. 

I think I hate this song actually.  Along with the Grateful Dead thing and the  Springsteen thing, I never really understood the Van Halen stardom thing.  ( except for Valerie Bertinelli) It just was never that big of a deal to me.  I am not judging because now we have a whole  bunch of "entertainers" claiming to be legends and they are merely hacks making a crap load of money.  Maybe it is just me but I have never seen such a wide disparity between income and talent. 

All I really know is that I cannot get the song out of my head and after another few hours I will go mad.  I will have to watch three Let it Be videos, one "Don't Let Me Down and two Nights in White Satin videos to purge the evilness out of my soul.

Shit, I just googled "Don't let me down" and the first search result was not referencing the Beatles. Don McLean said it would happen, It has come, the day the music died.  See what happens when a virus get into my head.  I need to find a monoclonal antibody for virulent songs.  I will take Lynyrd Skynyrd shooters and James Taylor rubs to help with the symptomology.  Maybe I will try "Mickey by Toni basil, that may do it.

"Smokin' in the Boys Room"

 This is a song originally recorded by Brownsville Station and written by Michael "Cub" Koda (October 1, 1948 – July 1, 2000) in 1973 on their album Yeah! It reached number 3 in Canada^[1] and on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was later certified by the RIAA.  The song was covered in 1985 by Mötley Crüe. Released as a single, "Smokin' in the Boys Room" reached #16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and became Mötley Crüe's first and probably only hit.  The Crue had one of the main things a band needs, a great name.

This was a song that could really crank you up.  I remember every year of school, the students voted "yes" for a student smoking area and it never happened. This song was the anthem.  We all had a buddy named something like "Fang".  We knew a bunch of kids that smoked of course.  They were as close to an actual rebel as I could get.  Rebels were rebellious and that meant sex, drugs and wild rock and roll. If a girl smoked, she was putting out, because it was all part of rebellion.  Anyone who was bold enough to smoke in the bathrooms at school was "cool" by my measure.  Smoking was not cool but people who smoked were cool and most likely having a bunch of sex.  People that were smoking on school grounds were freakin awesome.

Cub Koda was a genius as far as I am concerned.  His name, his outfits, his abilities said all the good things about the early rock and roll era.  Talent, flair and determination was what rock and roll was really all about.  To see how original Brownsville Station was, look at the early videos and imagine that they did all that before MTV, and YouTube.

What a great experience hearing this song for the first time.  I got the album as a "introductory album" from the record club that I was part of.  I had to order Credence Clearwater Revival-Green River and they sent me "Yeah" by Brownsville Station for free. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9zWw0Ru28w