Summer in the City, Lovin’ Spoonful

In my preteen and early teen years I spent a lot of time in my room listening to records. Some of Mom’s old 33’s, then 45’s handed down to me from my brothers. That’s how I came to know the Lovin’ Spoonful’s song “Do You Believe in Magic?” But the version I first listened to was actually a later cover by Sean Cassidy. It would be years later before I would hear the original, which somehow felt more mature than the happy, smiley Sean Cassidy version.

Image by JLB1988 from Pixabay

I’m pretty sure the “Summer in the City” single on my record player was the original, though, and talk about gritty and mature. I don’t know how you get grit and depth into a song that seems to be just a simple teen tune about going out in town on a hot summer night, but there’s something about it, whether its the key changes, the tempo . . . I am sure Brian could give me an excellent musical analysis for how this song has impressed listeners and critics alike.

It was their only number one single, but released in 1966, it was their fifth song to make it into the top ten. The band’s songwriter John Sebastian reworked a song written by his 14-year-old brother, Mark and created some major-minor key contrast between the verses and chorus. I can’t find any information on whether Mark was pleased with the results of his big brother’s changes, but I suspect he didn’t mind being part of the creation of a number one hit.

I’m heading to the city with Brian this weekend and it will be hot. He’ll be playing in a gaming tournament while Eliot, our pup, and I dip our toes in at the beach on Long Island. Wish us luck!

Bicycle Race by Queen

The last memory I have of the banana seat bike from yesterday’s post was going over the handlebars and scraping up my nose on the sidewalk in front of the laundromat on Bald Eagle Street in Lock Haven. The absurdity of it. A buddy of mine came running to help, and it just so happened that he was in his Boy Scout uniform, probably getting ready to go to a club meeting. The memory is better than a scene from That Seventies Show, me trying to wave him away, crying but embarrassed and wanting to be left alone, not rescued.

Aside from being pushed off my bike by a bully once, the only other memory I can summon about tiger-striped banana seat cycle is getting stung by a yellow jacket that had been resting under the handlebar when I grabbed hold of it. Ouch. I’ve hated bees and anything with a stinger ever since.

Eventually, after we moved to Charlton, I remember having a ten-speed bike. I can’t say that I ever really got the hang of working those gears because it always felt so tough to pedal, but we did have a lot of fun racing downhill past a church and onto River Road. Had there been any cars coming, it could have gotten ugly. Those were the days before safety helmets too. Somehow we all survived. Isn’t that the Gen X mantra?

And for our finale this week, this song needs no introduction.

Dance With Me, 1975

I don’t know about you, but I need a slow dance at this point. I know it’s Friday and we usually kick up our heels a bit more, but grab a partner, a coat rack or your cat, and let’s sway slowly today. It’ll be good for our nerves. We started our dance tour this week in the early 2000’s on Tuesday with the Scissor Sisters, jumped back to the 60’s for a song from Martha and the Vandellas, then skipped to the 80’s yesterday to dance with the Kinks. Today, we step back to the mid 70’s for a more mellow dance tune with a band called Orleans.

This song brings back a lot of memories, not from high school, but from my younger childhood days, when I looked like I did in those photos up there. I used to listen to my brothers’ old 45’s and my mom’s old 33’s, even some occasional 8-track tapes. Ah, the benefit of those 8-tracks, when the album was over, it started back at the beginning again. The stuff I bought for myself in those days, when I had a few bucks, was usually on cassette. Whatever way I could get the music, old or new, I spent a lot of time in my bedroom listening to it, and songs like this just take me right back.

Orleans was also known for songs like “Love Takes Time” and “Still the One.” I think “Dance With Me” stands the test of time.

Nights in White Satin

My best friend from high school, Jim A, was so into the Moody Blues, and I’m grateful because he got me into them too. I learned their entire catalog by hanging out with him. Later Jim came up from Florida with my brother Jeff (name sake of JSOD) to be the best man at my wedding. That all feels like a hundred years ago.

”Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin” are the two songs most people know from Days of Future Past, but the whole album is a work of art that really should be experienced in its entirety, starting at “The Day Begins” and winding up with today’s Song of the Day. The entire album, accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is a thematic whole.

It came out two months after I was born, and I heard it and instantly fell in love with it 17 years later. Thank you, Jim. Sorry about the twee photo, but you stood by me like a Knight in white . . . I suppose fake satin and polyester, in this case.

Here is a “more recent” live version of this classic.

Driving Home for Christmas

I’ve been going through a bunch of old photos and scanning my favorites. Here’s a nostalgic image from the mid 90’s with my oldest two sons, Josiah and Jonathan, getting in the swing of the winter weather.

I had several ideas about how to complete this week’s theme of “Going Home,” but I swear, all the choices felt so sad. The famous “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was originally abut a soldier thinking of home, and the chorus always ends with the phrase that tells us it isn’t going to happen when he says, “if only in my dreams.” Heck, Leonard Cohen’s gorgeous “Going Home,” I realized is a metaphor for dying, “going home without the costume that I wore.” Even Lana Del Ray’s version of “Country Road” kind of sounds like she’s returning to a funeral.

The holidays can be sad in many ways, and I don’t want Jeff’s Song of the Day to make it sadder for anyone. Besides, other than maybe a few really cool videos that add something fun or unique to the music, I want us to play songs that are maybe a bit different than the ones you’re be being bombarded with in Target, Walmart, and even the grocery store.

So, here’s one I found that is almost about as much about the video as it is about the music. In fact, the lyrics might not even be that important. You could almost make up your own, which is what this tune feels like for me. One of those driving songs you make up to pass the time. It’s called “Driving Home for Christmas” from 1986, by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea.

This looks so much like Pennsylvania, it reminds me of a year that we drove over the Loganton Mountain after a snow storm to pick up my boys for Christmas. And even if you live deep in the south, I think you can enjoy this white Christmas sort of song and make it fit your own needs this holiday, even if instead of driving, you’re staying home for Christmas.

Memories

Another one of those Mondays with A LOT on the schedule. So, let’s just do a quick toast (it’s five o’clock somewhere, as the man says), and wish each other the best day we can have. Hang in there, kick butt, or just make it through. Whatever it is you need to do today. There are a lot of people who love you, and you probably couldn’t even name them all.

The picture above is a favorite memory of mine, with my boys at our favorite pizza place. Jonathan in the foreground and left to right behind him, Josiah, me, and Micah.

Here’s to the ones that we got
Cheers to the wish you were here, but you’re not
‘Cause the drinks bring back all the memories
Of everything we’ve been through
Toast to the ones here today
Toast to the ones that we lost on the way
‘Cause the drinks bring back all the memories
And the memories bring back, memories bring back you

Today’s song was written by Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and released in September of 2019. Somehow it feels like the song has been around a lot longer, maybe that’s because it’s inspired by the chord progression in Pachelbel’s “Canon” but reworked from D into B major. Here’s Maroon 5 with “Memories.”