Rock-tober 31, 2014

Thirty days and thirty songs. The month's playlist covered a swath of emotions including bold and brassy, lighthearted, pensive, and even slightly romantic.

And it all gets topped off by Lynyrd Skynryd.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. With AC/DC doing opening honors back on the 1st, Skynyrd closing out the great month of Rock-tober has a certain symmetry to it and the makings of a nice tradition. Now all we need is the song.

During this month I've done a lot of looking back, and these past 30 posts have brought to mind memories I hadn't thought about in years. These memories were of simpler, happy times growing up, going to school, and just hanging with friends. The fact that these days are gone just fills me with nostalgia, and for the past week or so I've not been able to get this song out of my head.

"Tuesday's Gone" is the 2nd track on Skynyrd's 1st album, Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd. The studio version intros with a Mellotron, an electronic keyboard with an unmistakable sound, before Gary Rossington's lone, mournful guitar takes over. Johnny Van Zant then picks it up and his vocals meld superbly with the instrumentation. Perfection. This is one of Skynyrd's most underrated songs.

There's a lot of consensus in the blogosphere that the song is about a guy who leaves his girlfriend named Tuesday. One commentator even mentions her father named her Tuesday "after the  girl in the song."

I think there's a deeper meaning. Ronnie van Zant wrote "Tuesday" when realized his life had reached an inflection point. The band just signed a new record deal with MCA, and the simple routineness of the life he'd known was over. It was a watershed moment. The life that he had on Tuesday was irrevocably changed and was now "gone with the wind", like tearing a page from a calendar.

Rock-tober 2014 is now "gone with the wind." As it fades into yesterday, I thank you for giving these past 31 missives a portion of your busy day. While not always easy, cranking out each post was always fun. Do me a couple of personal favors. Don't be so busy. Take stock of your life in the here and now and fully appreciate it, because the ordinariness of today becomes tomorrow's wistful nostalgia. Then grab hold of your main squeeze and tell them they rock your world.

 And hold them like there's no tomorrow.

Rock-tober 30, 2014

We used to live in Columbia, MD. It's a nice enough place with several man made ponds, lots of green space, and tree lined trails. But that prettiness came with a price. Columbia was a planned community with every physical aspect of its appearance spelled out in great detail in some monstrous tome. As a result, the town was chock full of covenants, restrictions, and HOA's some would classify as militant. We were once dinged because our window trim was the wrong shade of "off white".

Another annoyance that reared its head from time to time was big restrictions on road signage. If you were looking for a place of business, you'd better know exactly how to get there, because you wouldn't see any signs from the road. We were there for almost 3 years before we realized there was a great kabob place less than a mile away from us.

Les Emmerson, lead singer for Five Man Electrical Band, had a different point of view when he was cruising Route 66 in California. On his road trip he saw the opposite extreme of gaudy billboards hawking the next roadside attraction. The beautiful landscape obscured by the unnatural advertising sprawl affected him greatly.

This gave rise to the single, "Signs", that was released off the group's second album, Good-byes and Butterflies. It turned out to be the band's biggest hit, eventually climbing to #4 in the group's native Canada and to #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Like a lot of other songs of this era, it was a song of protest that gave voice to the disenfranchised. The song narrated the actions of a lone champion who won encounter after encounter with rule makers and symbols of authority. It also has what I think is the simplest, most profound prayer of thankfulness in all of classic rockdom, "Thank you, Lord, for thinking about me; I'm alive and doing fine."

Rock-tober 29, 2014

The late 70's wasn't all disco balls and free love communes; there was some serious kimchi hitting the fan. We were on the backside of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. The Middle East Oil Crisis kicked off gas shortages and ended the golden age of muscle cars. Double digit inflation, soaring interest rates, and joblessness was hitting everybody hard. And then, like an exclamation point at the end of a listless decade, came news from overseas.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized control of the US Embassy in Tehran. Fifty-two Americans were captured and held hostage for 444 days.

Once again, the slumbering giant was awakened. America closed ranks, stood shoulder to shoulder, and flat out double dog dared the world to take another step. It was in this atmosphere that the Charlie Daniels Band released "In America".

The entire spectrum of our society was reinvigorated, and sectarian labels we'd previously worn (the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks) were replaced by another. We were simply "American". It was suddenly cool to be American again.

What about Pittsburgh? What's so special about the Steelers? Daniels eloquently explained the call out himself:

"The strength of America is not in Washington, D.C., It's in our people, it's on the farms, in the factories. It's the people out here that make this country work. The truck drivers, the farmers. And these people, that's what they were, and I just felt like if you want to go to war, let me take some of these guys with me. Go lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and you're gonna find out what American anger is, because it's the kind of people they are."

Let me be clear: unrestrained patriotism leads to hyper-nationalism, and this irrational sense of nationalism is how you wound up with that blemish on humanity that was Nazi Germany. This was, of course, so not the band's intent. When the song was released, there was a resurgence of pride and patriotism that had not been seen for over a decade. Class and racial infighting was set aside to focus on greater issues. Self reliance and the firm belief that America could pull herself up by her bootstraps became common place. All this was topped off with a healthy dose of flag waving, "USA!" chanting American bravado. Ain't nothin' wrong with that.

God bless America.

Rock-tober 28, 2014

America is huge. We span North America from sea to shining sea and then toss in Alaska and Hawaii for good measure. The concept of scale that we have is something folks overseas can't really appreciate. Take the state of Texas. On one of our family drives to the west coast, we came across a popular bumper sticker, "The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we iz in Texas yet." Apart from profaning the English language, the sentiment was spot on. Overlay a map Texas onto Europe and you'll find the Lone Star State dwarfs most of their countries.

In spite of all this land, why isn't the US population hunkered down on the Eastern seaboard? Because apparently we're wired differently. As soon as new territories opened up to the west, something in the American DNA pushed us to the frontier. According to that old School House Rock hit, "Elbow Room", we like our space. So we set out. First on foot, then on horse, then on train. Then came the automobile. Henry Ford's mass produced brainchild gave us unsurpassed freedom of movement. It allowed us to freely and independently explore every nook and cranny of our immense country. We could all climb in the car and drive six hours to grandma's house for Thanksgiving, or a couple of days to the beach for vacation, or across the country for a better job.

Yup. When tough times came and we found ourselves in dire straits, our automobiles became our refuge of last resort. Pack a few bags, toss them in the trunk, and hit the road. A fresh start beckoned just around the corner and over the next hill.

Bruce Springsteen released "Thunder Road" on his 1975 album, Born to Run. A huge fan favorite and one of Springsteen's most performed songs, it embodies our relationship with our cars. The song's narrative unfolds of someone disillusioned with his life in a dead end town, and he tries desperately to convince his best girl to hop in his car and join him in his search of a new beginning. As the song crescendos near the end, the sense of hope of what's down that stretch of two lane is almost palpable.

Rock-tober 27, 2014

Back when I was at Auburn, I was working out in the gym one day with a buddy of mine. The radio was tuned to a classic rock station, and "Walk on the Wildside" was playing. When the song got to the infamous chorus, "And the colored girls go....," my friend started prancing across my field of vision lip syncing the lyrics. It had the intended effect, and I lost it. Luckily I managed to drop the weights straight down on the rack rather than my neck.

Today marks the one year anniversary of Lou Reed's death in Southhampton, New York at the age of 71. His career in music and film spanned nearly 40 years and saw the release of 26 albums as both a solo artist and as a member of Velvet Underground. While not commercially viable, Velvet Underground has been lauded by critics and artists as one of the most influential bands in history. A common quote regarding Velvet was, "They may have only sold 30,000 records, but everyone who bought one of those records started a band."

As a solo artist, Lou Reed was best known for "Walk On the Wildside", released in 1972. For the uninformed, the song was about several transvestite acquaintances of Reed who were making their way to New York seeking fortune if not fame. When the song was released in the UK, it was unfettered by the normally very conservative BBC censorship board. Frankly, all the innuendo woven into the song went over their heads, and they allowed unrestricted airplay.

Even for the US release, the main modifications were to the chorus. The original, "And all the colored girls go...," was changed to "And the girls all say..." That fact alone interestingly illuminates what American mores and sensibilities were during that period.

The song and subject matter were way ahead of their time. It still surfaces in pop culture references and continues to be covered and sampled by artists ranging from Marky Mark to U2.

Rock-tober 26, 2014

The Rolling Stones have been cruising the airwaves since 1962. They continue to tour even as these words are being penned and thus far have released 24 studio albums totalling just over 200 songs. Their fame and reputation is world wide, yet, they're not one of my favorites.

I don't own a single Stones album. I know, sacrilege, right? Chalk it up to personal taste. They do have certain songs that I like, and today's feature is one.

"Paint it Black" was released in 1966 off their Aftermath album, and it went all the way to #1 both here and in the UK. The original intent was for this song to be slower and more soulful. During a studio session, organist Bill Wyman started experimenting with the tempo. He was joined by Charlie Watts on percussion, and the resulting creation was what was finally used.

Controversy did follow the launch of the single. It was released as "Paint It, Black". Were the Stones making a racial statement? Were they issuing a command to legions of secret followers? Gotta love the '60's. Keith Richards cleared the air stating that Decca, the record label, erroneously added the comma.

This is one of those songs with an unmistakable riff. That instrument you hear just above the din of guitars is a sitar. Richards said, "To get the right sound on 'Paint It Black' we found the sitar fitted perfectly. We tried a guitar but you can't bend it enough." Music critic, Richie Unterberger, declared that this, "qualifies as perhaps the most effective use of the Indian instrument in a rock song."

"Paint It Black" continues to be one of the band's signature songs and fan favorites, and it's still introducing new people to the Stones. One blog commenter stated, "First heard this song on Guitar Hero a few years ago but since then I've bought almost all their albums up to date and I still continue to listen to this song today. It's just awesome!"

*sigh*

Apart from the commentary that your first real introduction to the Stones was through a gaming console, I guess whatever works...

Rock-tober 25, 2014

Coming of age in the 80's bestowed on me certain privileges. I knew a simpler world before 9-11 and AIDS. Although I was still part of the "play outside" generation, I was there at the dawn of the gaming revolution and actually played on PONG and Atari gaming consoles (still have the Atari). I also remember seeing and purchasing gas that was less than $1.00 a gallon.

By living through that era, I've also earned the right to laugh at 80's fashion. Spandex, shoulder pads, and scrunchies. Mullets, muscle shirts, and big hair "jacked to Jesus". You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a fashion faux pas.

"Well, Wayne, you can't be totally innocent here. Spill the beans."

OK. I did sport quite a few OP (Ocean Pacific for the young or uninformed) shorts and muscle shirts. Then there's the Members Only jackets (still have a leather one). I'll also cop to Hawaiian shirts and linen sport coats. That last one was inspired by the Miami Vice "look".

Miami Vice aired from '84 - '90 and followed Crockett and Tubbs on their crusade against crime in South Beach. The stories were gritty, the cars were cool, and they always had a great soundtrack playing in the background. Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight" provided the backdrop for the edgy series pilot. It was also showcased in the now classic "Rock-tober: Day 18" from 2013. His music returned the next year as "Take Me Home" was included in the season two opener.

The droning, rhythmic percussion dovetails with the somber, pensive lyrics. It's an interesting counterpoint to the lighthearted video, where his appearances in major world capitals and cities incites my own wanderlust.

Phil Collins made yet another return to Miami Vice. Further along in season two he makes an actual appearance. He plays "Phil the Shill", an English TV personality who gets tangled up with a cocaine dealer and necessarily runs afoul of  Crockett and Tubbs.