nobody asked…

The Eagles were popular back when I was. We old birds still have it… heh… Well, actually, they still are… and still do… Notice how the young folks in the audience know the words, sing along, and get into the groove…

And now, girls and boys, a little change of pace as we cruise into the weekend…

Thanks to Jackie Sue and her cousin Big Tex for holding the lantern while I found this.

Turn the volume up, get your toes ready to tap, and have at it. This is especially for my friend Tamarika, an avid Obama supporter in Philadelphia.

[A big flip of my voting lever for Annatopia for publishing this right where I could find it. I challenge everyone who is in favor of change in our country to grab this and publish it also. This is one we cannot play too much or too often until the battle is won…]

I have seen strange. I have lived through weird. I have suffered the bizarre. Sometimes it feels like I’ve seen it all and there is nothing left that will surprise me. Then something comes along that defies all that I know and think and feel. There are things that perhaps we are just not supposed to understand…

I first saw this over at Papa Meloney’s place and adapted his description and comment about it:

Consider the Finnish rock band called The Leningrad Cowboys, who appeared in concert in Russia. With the screaming approval of Russian teen-agers, they had the Red Army Choir to join them on stage for a performance of Sweet Home Alabama. In English. You couldn’t make this up… We’re talking seriously off the wall here. Better have that Stoli ready when you watch it.

Yes, I’m OK. You’re OK. The rest of the world? I’m not so sure some days…

If you had a pulse in 1967, you knew this song by Buffalo Springfield. It was written by Stephen Stills (yes, that Stephen Stills), one of the founders of the group, after he witnessed police actions against a crowd of young people gathered on Sunset Strip to stage an anti-war protest. The song was recorded in December 1966, and by March 1967, Buffalo Springfield had a Top Ten Hit. The group was together just over two years, but was an influential folk-rock group that served as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Understanding that this is a protest song, enjoy Buffalo Springfield performing For What It’s Worth. The lyrics are below the video window in case you want to sing along…

There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

To remind those who lived it, and to reveal it to those too young to remember, here’s another rendition, creatively crafted into a collage tapestry of images of the day. This is what it was all about. This is what we did in the ’60s to protest another ill-advised war in a land far away, another war we could not and did not win. Where are the young people today? Why are there no protests in the streets? Roomie and I have talked about this on several occasions and we are in agreement — if there was a draft today, it would be the ’60s all over again. Protests. Rallys. One-way trips to Canada. A President and other high-ranking political and military officials with broken spirits. Maybe even free love and nickle beer… nah, not likely.

It was the celebrity kind of thing, like the girls of all ages being madly in love with Tom Jones. But in the early to mid sixties I was soooo in love with Martha. Discovery of this clip from 1965 brought it all back. Or maybe sent me back. It also reminded me of parents and other alleged adults warning us that dancing and twisting we were doing was going to mess up our knees and backs. Yep, they were right about that…

There is no indication of the venue, but I suspect it was the Ed Sullivan Show or some other variety show like that. Could have been Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, but the set is not right. Notice the synchronized choreography of the background vocalists, typical of the acts coming out of Motown in the ’60s. Berry Gordy was — and is — a marketing genius, in addition to having an ear for sounds and an eye for looks that sell.

After you’ve gotten your juices flowing with Dancing In The Streets, search through YouTube’s Martha & The Vandellas offerings, tighten up your knee brace, and cruise on out, riding on a Heat Wave.

Found over at John B.’s Blog Meridian, this is one of the most creatively humorous … or is that humorously creative? … works I’ve seen lately. John’s accompanying text includes a couple of other links including this one for a field guide to stray shopping carts. Good stuff here that is guaranteed to tic up the corners of your pie-hole.

This is precisely the kind of off-beat humor I needed this morning. I hope it does to you what it did to me.

Nothin’ like a little Rickie Lee Jones to get my blood pump primed on a cold and wintry morn…

Circa 1975. Neil Young called Tonight’s the Night, his tribute to two close friends taken down by drug overdoses, the closest he ever came to art. The dark tone, punctuated by the deep bluesy riffs, bind it to and separate it from his mainstream work of the era. Sit back, close your eyes, and sink into the raw emotion…

Oh, my god… Aretha and Bonnie together. It jes don’ get no better n’ that…

Subtitle: More Riddles for Eric…

Maybe it was a short journey from the git-go. Maybe it was simply a fulfillment of genetic destiny. Maybe it was a last-gasp, blood-curdling scream from deep within the tortured soul of a man who gave up smoking and was forced to eat couscous a couple of times. More likely, I’m just wacko. Whatever the trigger, I am deliriously happy to report that after years of trying, edging ever so close on occasion, I have now achieved a state of complete, blissful insanity. Yabba. Dabba. Doo…

Digging back into the stacks and listening to oldies/goodies that were favorites when they were fresh, there is always the danger of one of them becoming the earworm du jour. For those not familiar with that disgusting term, click on the word to see my earlier explanation.

In preparation for the previous post featuring America’s Horse With No Name, I listened to many renditions and covers, as well as several different versions of some other favorites of mine by America. Those include You Can Do Magic, Ventura Highway, and Tin Man.

The problem? Youse wants to know what the problem is? Well, Mr. and Ms. Wiseguy, I’ll tell you what the problem is. The problem is that I now have not one, not two or three, but FOUR OF THESE MOTHERBUMPING EARWORMS ALL PLAYING AT THE SAME FREAKING TIME. And I can’t seem to shut them off. Or even whittle it down to one. Or change the channel to something different. Old Rugged Cross. Tennessee Waltz. Doesn’t matter. Anything. But after a while, the strange mix becomes mine, all mine. It becomes me. I become one with the stream and doo doo doo dit all the way into nirvana and back. Flowing effortlessly over purple fields of candy. Following the sweet birds of youth, chanting and singing the words of the simpleton out by the pond. Smiling into the sunshine with eyes wide shut.

No, Oz never did give nothing to the tin man because he rode a horse with no name down the Ventura highway watching alligator lizards in the air while she repeats over and over you can do magic at the tropic of sir galahad…

La la la la… la la la la.. la la la la… laaaa…

America was popular back when I was. This clip from 1973, is of the lads, Dewey, Dan, and Gerry, early in their career, performing their chart-busting Horse With No Name. Putting together this post, I found myself doing what I did when this cut came out on LP — listening to it over and over, trying to decipher the mesmerizing words and sounds. It is at once intriguing, depressing, uplifting, confusing, non-sensical, and contains the answers to the mysteries of life. Even if the writing and performing of the song were not chemically assisted, listening to it you begin to realize the song becomes the drug…

Sometimes it takes a simple tune to capture our attention. One like The Rainbow Connection, the opening song from the The Muppet Movie (1979). Written by Kenny Ascher and Paul Williams, Rainbow has been covered many times by a wide range of artists, from Willy Nelson to Debbie Harry to Justin Timberlake, but the one that warms me most is the original sung by Kermit the Frog, which of course was Jim Henson (R.I.P.). Kermit’s rendition may be the only song I am drawn to that I would refer to as sweet. The music and words speak to me, calling my name. Lyrics are below the YouTube window, so sing along like no one is listening. Enjoy!

The Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what’s on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it,
And look what it’s done so far.
What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

All of us under its spell,
We know that it’s probably magic…

… Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices?
I’ve heard them calling my name.
… Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same
I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
It’s something that I’m s’posed to be…
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Laa, da daa dee da daa daa,
La laa la la laa dee daa doo…