Rock-tober: Day 15

If you were to line up all the Rock-tober songs to date and place "Africa" amongst them, you would probably be saying, "Hmm. One of these is not like the others." On the surface, you'd be right. But there's just something about this song...

As a kid, the best part of National Geographic magazine was the maps. After unfolding them and laying them out, my fingers traced out Columbus's voyage to the New World, the line of Hadrian's Wall that bisected Britannia, or the course of the Colorado as it cut the swath of the Grand Canyon. Exploration and curiosity.

Jimmy Buffet once said, "My occupational hazard is my occupation's just not around." Regrettably, the days of wearing a pith helmet while hacking a trail through virgin jungle or seeing an unknown shore for the first time through a sailor's spyglass are gone. But for me, the inherent need to explore and see what's around the next corner is still there.

Here's another personal factoid: One item on my bucket list is to set foot on all seven continents (I still need to hit three more).

Andrea periodically cautions me to curb my curiosity before it gets me into trouble. She's been proven correct on many occasions, but the urge to just open that closed door or push that red button are always present. She sighs heavily and then gives me a T-shirt that says, "Not all who wander are lost." Huh. Sounds familiar. At least she gets me.

Anyway, that's what this song evokes for me. Cross an ocean just to see what's over the horizon. Scale a mountain just to check out the view. Test the boundary. Push the limit. For me, that's very Rock and Roll.

As a side note, I was fortunate to have spent nearly a month in Africa and Tanzania specifically in an effort to bring the gift of sign language to the deaf and hard of hearing in that land. I'm very proud to be part of that ongoing mission, and I'll post a link later so you can check out the facts. Be different and make a difference. That's also very Rock and Roll. Nothing on the scale of Bono's efforts, but hey, at least I've got a year-round tan. Yeah, that's right. Suck it, Bono.

Now, anybody know how to get to McMurdo Station?

Rock-tober: Day 14

From the name of their band to a recurring theme of their albums (Play Deep, Extra Innings, Playing the Field), The Outfield has thoroughly embraced America's greatest pastime. Not bad for a trio of Brits.

During my senior year of high school, The Outfield was one of the hottest groups out there. "Your Love", a single from their 1985 premier album, Play Deep, was their hottest hit. It seemed like that song was everywhere those days.

Here's a non sequitur and personal factoid: I've only known one person in my life named Josie...

As a freshman at the University of South Alabama, I caught The Outfield when they played on campus. They were pushing their second album, Bangin. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as popular as their first effort. This played out in the audience reaction, which was pretty sedate for a college crowd. But when they launched into "Your Love", wow. The noise level doubled. I remember it being shrill, probably from all the sorority chicks.

Soon after, band members left, they tried a new sound, and basically stumbled around for a while. Recently, they reconstituted the original group and released a new album, Replay. Two singles off that record were released, and they both have a sound very reminiscent of the 80's. However, you'll have to track them down yourself since they're outside the pre-1989 cutoff of the Rock-tober ground rules.

Rock-tober: Day 13

Where did you get your first guitar?

Dad was stationed in Rota, Spain, with the Navy in the late 70's. While he was there, Mom asked him to pick up a Spanish guitar for my aunt who had expressed an interest in learning to play.

Fifteen years later, after her interest waned and my own was rising, she gifted it back to me. In a very roundabout way, Dad bought me my first real six string. I always thought that was pretty cool.

I liked to play in college. For me, it was a great portable, lowcost stress reliever. If there was a guitar close buy, it wound up in my hands. Today, I still have it, and I'll still reach for it, just not nearly as often. I don't know if that means my life is less stressful these days or I just developed a thicker skin.

Unlike me, Bryan Adams has a parade of hit songs on his resume. "Cuts Like a Knife" and "Run to You" come to mind. He even graced the soundtrack of my favorite campy Costner flick, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."

Yeah, don't hurt yourself laughing there, Chuckles. Costner shared screen time with a scimitar wielding Morgan Freeman and a cameo shot with a crowned Sean Connery. That sentence alone makes it a bad ass film and your objections are invalid.

For the record, Bryan Adams was born on 5 November 1959. So...in the summer of '69, Bryan Adams was all of 9 years old. All this talk of buying a guitar at the local five and dime, an abortive attempt at starting a band, and making out with some girl on her mamma's porch is, I'm guessing, probably poetic licence on his part.

Rock-tober: Day 12

One afternoon back in the late 90's, Andrea comes home and asks if I'd be interested in catching Eric Clapton in concert.

"Nope. Sorry, Babe. I'm dining with the president that evening."

"I'm serious."

She was serious. Holy crap! I don't remember if I had anything going on that night, but if I did, it was summarily canceled. Thanks to Andrea and her job at the time, I had the distinct privilege of seeing Slowhand when he came through Washington, DC. The seats were incredible. I could feel the wind off his fingers as he fanned that 6-string.

Picking a single Clapton tune is another hard Rock-tober choice. I could choose his Caribbean infused rendition of  "Knocking On Heaven's Door", or "Layla" with its soaring guitar postlude, or even  "Wonderful Tonight" which is probably's Andrea's favorite Clapton offering.

I chose "After Midnight", but not the '70 release. I never could get into that version. It always seemed too...peppy, even a little campy. But something happened on the way to the 80's. When it was repackaged on the '88 album, Crossroads, it was a whole different animal. Like a naive little kid who had to grow up fast in a bad neighborhood, the latest incarnation was somber, harder, and with a bit of an edge. In Clapton's hands, the guitar nearly growled at you.

Mom always said, "Not much good ever happens past midnight." Well, if this song was playing in the background, I'd be willing to tempt fate.

Rock-tober: Day 11

"Gee, Wayne, most of the stuff you're posting came out of the 70's. Just how old are you?"

Shut up. Remember, good music is timeless. But to satisfy you youngsters who can't relate to bell bottoms, exhaust belching big blocks, and be-bopping down the street with a tinny transistor radio held to your ear, let's fast forward to the 80's - at least for a while.

Personally, I didn't get the whole glam rock image Poison and their brethren were portraying back then, but I loved their music. Surveying my collection, Poison makes up the bulk of my big hair band tracks with the possible exception of Bon Jovi, but that's another post.

Poison's range is impressively wide. They released the soulful ballads "Something to Believe In", "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", and even a pretty good cover of The Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See". Remember them form Rock-tober Day 5? Like I said, good music is timeless. These guys can rock it out, too, and my favorite from this side of their house is "Nothin' But a Good Time".

C.C. DeVille leads the charge on guitar, and the rest follow on a song best enjoyed on the open road. For my part, windows are down, shades are on, and the stereo is cranked. Like a buddy of mine says, it's time to "drive it like I stole it."

Rock-tober: Day 10

The Hollies, a group out of the UK, released "Long Cool Woman" in 1972. It opens with a strutting guitar line punctuated by drum beats before starting into some of the most unintelligible lyrics I've ever heard. Maybe it's because they're British - I turn captions on when I'm watching BBC America. Thanks to the Internet, I finally figured out they're saying, "She was a long cool woman in a black dress, just a 5'9", beautiful, tall." Huh. Sounds like a red head I know...

This was not a big hit for the Hollies in the UK - it only went to #32. However, in the US, they rode it all the way to #2, making it the highest ranked song of their US Top 10 singles. Maybe it's the gangster motif and the gun play that made it more relevant over here. For me, it's the only song of theirs that I own. Their other hits, and there's a number of them including "Air That I Breath" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" are a little too "bubble gum rock" for me.

Rock-tober: Day 9

There's a lot of theories and suppositions out there attempting to explain just what this song is really about. The song itself teases you with lines like "Seventy-three men sailed off into history" and the refrain, "Ride, Captain, ride upon your mystery ship." Seventy-three is an oddly specific number. Wait, there's also a mystery ship? It must have some hidden meaning, right?

There's a large camp that says it's a story about the USS Pueblo. A competing theory supports the idea that it's about Sir Francis Drake.

Look, if you really want to exercise your Scooby Gang credentials and solve a mystery, go here. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy some 70's funk.