Saturday, January 19, 2008

 

Three songs I love that make me nauseous

On a happy-go-lucky day back in 1976 or '77, I went into town with Mama ER, to the mall, and came home with three 45-rpm records of songs on the radio then.

Came home to find that my free samples of Happy Days, Skoal and Copenhagen snuff had arrived in the mail. I was 12. I'd sent in a coupon cut from Boy's Life magazine. Were those the days or what? :-)

Tried the Happy Days, which had (has?) a peppermint flavor. Yuck. Tried the Skoal. Man, it burned! Wintergreen flavor. Not bad.

Tried the Copenhagen. Tasted like a sweat-foamed horse smells. Made the world spin. I laid down on an upturned water tank for a long time, waitin' for it to quit.

Went back to the Skoal and used it for probably seven years before "graduating" to Copenhagen, the crack cocaine of smokeless tobacco -- and just thinking about it makes my lip ACHE for a dip right now, even though July will make five years since I've had a dip.

Here are the 45s I bought back then. I love each song. And each one triggers, slightly, my gag reflex. :-)


The first one won't surprise anybody:




The next one might surprise everybody!




And the last one might very well make you think, WTH? :-)




Here ends a snapshot from ER's youth. :-)

--ER

Comments:
Wow. I DO still love that Kansas song, and it does still hit me in more places than my erstwhile snuff-dipping lip. What lyrics! What tunage! It will be considered classical music three hundred years hence.
 
Kansas. Alabama. (Black Oak) Arkansas. There was Chicago and Boston, but I don't know of an Illinois or Massachusetts. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a band for every state in the union? Well, maybe there would only be one Dakota since there aren't that many people in the two combined. I really dig the Spanish singer Alaska, though few non-Spanish speakers in the U.S. know her. She's sort of a Castillion version of Cyndi Lauper/Nina Hagen. Smokie? Huh. WTH indeed. WTF!
 
Not surprised by the Glen Campbell. Actually, not surprised by the Kansas song, either - it still rocks, thirty years on (I'm a mega-fan).

Smokie? I have NEVER heard of them. Looks, and sounds, a bit like Rod Stewart.

I never barfed when I used chewing tobacco; a guy who graduated from HS, though, when he was in eighth grade, ended up barfing when he was caught dipping by the social studies teacher, who made him swallow the entire wad. We all laughed.

Incidentally, I remember how easy it was to buy chewing tobacco - and cigarettes, when we were kids (my mother would occasionally ask me to buy hers for her). Indeed, those were th days, and we are becoming old farts as we reminisce about them.
 
Junk: Massachusetts, by the Bee Gee's 1967.

Our music was tame back then. Just your basic rock n' roll.

My grandmother dipped snuff, and chewed tobacco. So that was hardly cool in my world. Beside we had natural stuff growing wild down on the Red River and it was free. Didn't even have to buy papers, just stole them from my daddy who rolled his own Prince Albert cigarettes. But, I never inhaled mind you.

As for liquid refreshment, well, all that was all illegal in Oklahoma then. The xxxxx boys, who lived down the creek from my best friend, would provide you with some Saturday night lubricants but you had to be careful not to mix up the sediment on the bottom when you poured it out of the jar. If I remember right, about my sophomore year that source "dried up" when they were caught trying rob the bank in Chattanooga, Oklahoma. Why yes, they were drunk at the time.

Oh yes, and Junk here is the Illinois R&R song:(this one I had to look up)

Found myself heading down toward springfield
The last sign said it was twelve miles west
It's gettin' hard to see through the salt on my windshield
But it looks like I'm gonna make it before the sun sets

The morning I arrived was lincoln's birthday
So I walked through his house and saw his tomb
I decided that a tour through the civil war memorial museum would be a drag
I was tired of seeing monuments about other men's doom

Now I don't want you people to think that all there is around springfield illinois
Are landmarks telling `bout the good old lincoln years
Cus just north of town I saw a sign that said the illinois opry is open tonight
And the sweet sound of country music filled my ears

And I want to be a star in the illinois opry now
The people in the country certainly know how to play....
by Reo Speedwagon
 
Wow. I wikipeed(tm) from "Smokie" to "Leather Tuscadero" in just two clicks.

And, Bay City Rollers.

Off to the shower, church and the Pig Out Palace in Henryetta, Okla., in that order. Toodles.
 
Pig Out Palace! I've taken pictures of the place and signs for friends who refuse to believe such a place exists. I've never been brave enough or that desperate to enter. Hope you live to tell the tale of your visit.
 
Can't be anything SERIOUSLY wrong with a guy who appreciates Kansas. They remain my very favorite favorites to this day. Beatles second. Followed by and in no particular order, The Who, Frampton, Fogelberg, and Heart
 
ELAshley, I do believe the planets have aligned again. We are in agreement - Kansas is an awesome band (I have so much of their library on remastered CD, plus their live DVD, my kids wonder what in the world I am doing sometimes watching these old guys). The Who, Heart, Frampton (well, Frampton Comes Alive is a great album by any measure, as far as I'm concerned) - also great. The Beatles really go without saying.

So, I may be a closet Satanist leading people to perdition, but I do it with a great soundtrack;)?
 
LOL and LOL on Geoffrey's last line!

EL, ya got taste, man.

Junk: I took a diet pill this morning, to my rgret! I had some nachos, which were great: chips deewp-fried on the spot, with two cheeses, onions and jalapenos.

But the buffet looked like something Mama ER might have fixed up: Ribs, other kinds of barbecue, fried chicken, mashed taters, gravy, various and sundry other vegetables, pickles and other "relishes," deviled eggs and sliced white bread, and that's just what I saw walkin' by and not studyin' up on it close.

I can't believe I'd never been there before!
 
That alignment didn't last too long Geoffrey, because I DON'T think you're a closet Satanist.

;-)

To quote Dave Mason,

"So let's leave it alone 'cause we can't see eye-to-eye
There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys
There's only you and me and we just disagree..."
 
By the way... Class of '79... when music was still good.
 
Well, now, the good music makin' continued, albeit in a different direction, into the 80s.

I was just complaining recently that OKC lacks a good 80s station that all the major markets have in one form or another. Not long after that, 98.9 does a minor format change, which now at least includes the 80s (even givin' me some tunage from the hearing-impaired spotted feline, which they've never played before!).

Man, what I'd do to have gotten tix to the Van Halen concert this week! 'Never seen'em with Dave...
 
Class of 63 when the music was just cookin.
 
First off, anything with Kansas in it HAS to be good. I've got Kansas in me, so I should know. :-)

I love Kansas music. But I also love Boston, Van Halen (when it was good), Lynard Skynard, 38Special, KISS. As a youngster in the 1970s, then as a teen/young adult in the 1980s, I didn't do much with country music, primarily because my folks -- OK, my dad -- forcefed it on us.

But secretly, I adored the "Urban Cowboy" soundtrack, Alabama, George Strait, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams, Hank Jr., Reba. That changed primarily because of the young country of the late 1980s and early 1990s, like Garth, Lorrie Morgan, Billy Dean, Clay Walker, etc.

Still, back to Kansas. Great things, that Kansas. Born there. Graduated there three times: high school, junior college, university. It's such a good state that even ER's favorite non-Oklahoma state has it in the title: Ar-KANSAS.

Tee, hee, hee
 
ELAshley - I love the lyrics you quoted. And may I say, on a somewhat serious note, thank you. I do hope we can move forward?

My youngest sister graduated in '79. I did so in '83, when the music still was bad, although if you kept your ear to the ground, there was good stuff just over the horizon, like U2 and REM. Yes released 90125 in November that year.

I have always felt, looking back, that '77 was the best year, really, but I think more because that was an eventful year in my family's life, and my own, more than because the music was better that year than any other.

I think there is plenty of great stuff out there now - you just have to want to find it, and keep looking till you do. That's what I've done; and some of this new stuff I've found - is really old.
 
Y'all *are* forward. :-)

Teditor: Yeah, but y'all dont know how to pernounces the name of yer own state. It's "kin-SAW."

Y'all, I was a Beatles baby, thanks to Big Brudder ER (class of '70). With some Hank Williams, Charlie Walker and Okie Roger Miller thrown in by Mama ER. But mainly the Beatles. My first owned music of any kiond was a casette of the Guess Who, given by said brudder. My first BOUGHT music was an 8-track of Steppenwolf. But in about '77, disco left me cold as the song says, and I started listening to country almost exclusively, and fell in love with the old stuff even, until about 1984, when top 40 was good enough to listen to again. (I did catch REO Speedwagaon and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, though.)

Oh, I'm class of '82, BTW.
 
Speaking of the nostalgic value of music, I remember back at Oh-Booh during my Sophomore year in the broadcasting department. It was time for the obligatory music video project.

I'd always wanted to do a video tribute to my late grandmother using Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over," which was my favorite song when she died. I remember climbing into the front seat of limo after the service and sitting there next to the driver while I waited for the rest of the family. The radio, which still had knobs and levered preset buttons, was turned down, but I could hear that song playing faintly, yet so loudly...a moment forever branded in both my heart and my mind.

I have an endless supply of mental imagery I associate with her, which is why I had always wanted to do a video to that song. However, as anyone who's produced a music video knows, you hear the song in small parts over and over and over again, and suddenly whatever nostalgic value it might have had before is replaced by new sentiment that will forever be associated with producing the video.

I decided not to risk ruining that, and I'm glad I didn't. Every time I hear the song's catchy guitar riff intro, I still think of my "Nanny K" and then, as the song says, "catch the deluge in a paper cup."
 
Wise decision.

Study anything closely and risk losing the thing that attracted you to it in the first place.

I was fascinated with the majesty of weather, so took a class in meteorology in college, and came away with isobars.

I was inspired by "the dance of legislation," so took a bachelor's degree in political science, and came away with A bunch of questionable theory.

I fell for a romantic view of American history, so took a master's degree in it, and came away with a realistic view that is interesting but not majestic, and not *special" or "blessed of God" or whatever, at all.

I keep such things in mind when considering formal study of theology.
 
Raised outside of Philadelphia not far from the Jersey line, I'm a Springsteen fan, and my husband is a Chicago fan, but we give a wide berth to most of the stuff they produced in the 80s (when we were coming of age, a few years after most of you, looks like). The Boss definitely improved after he got th eighties synthepop sound out of his system.

He's got fond memories of listening to Kansas while lying on his back in the bed of his stepfather's capped truck in the late 70s, staring up at the Carolina pines and the darkening sky as he was relayed back and forth from their house in Raleigh to his dad's house on the coast. So, yeah, we have all Kansas' early albums.

But my favorite song when I was a kid? OK, it's "Wolf Creek Pass." I recited it once word-for-word for a poetry memorization assignment in seventh-grade English and made *everyone* go, "WTH?!?" I just found a "Best of C.W. McCall" CD in a secondhand store not too long ago, to my great delight, but my husband keeps trying to accidentally throw it out the window when we're on the interstate.
 
"Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide, truckin' on down the other si-i-i-ide!"

:-) That's all I remembers.
 
1977... I remember Pablo Cruise from 77.. best LP they did was "A Place in the Sun"

In 76 I was given a birthday present from a total stranger.... moved to a new Air Base in Montgomery, AL, and the girl who gave it to me was the daughter of one of my Dad's friends.... Anyway... Tower of Power's "Ain't nothin stoppin' us now"

Best song... "Can't stand to see the slaughter"

"Can't stand to see the slaughter
But still I eat the meat
Can't stand dishonest people
But still sometimes I cheat
I can't stand that air pollution
But still I drive a car
Maybe them's the reasons why
Things are like they are..."


[ugrry]
 
I think the 3 Kansas albums I liked best, in order:

Leftoverture
Monolith
Masque
 
ELAshley, you are singing my songs, quite literally. I'm glad you listed Masque, because I think that is the most underrated, overlooked Kansas album - but few of their songs are as good as "The Pinnacle". My favorite songs of theirs, by the way, are "Journey From Mariobron" from their first live LP, "Cheyenne Anthem", and "Miracles Out of Nowhere". The live version of the last on Device, Voice, Drum rocks truly hard.

Pablo Cruise - "Love Will Find a Way". Me, I'm currently enjoying getting reacquainted with England Dan and John Ford Coley and Firefall. You know, some of that pop from the mid- to late-70's is pretty good.

Even Ambrosia.
 
Love Ambrosia... got it all. And there's nothing wrong with England Dan & John Ford Coley.

But you remind me of Seals & Croft and aside from the obvious "Summer Breeze," from the same album is a hauntingly beautiful lullaby "East of Ginger Trees"

"Go east of your dream and farm.
Let peace and silence spin your yarn.
What harm can befall thee
In yon wilderness of clove?"


ER, it's your fault I've begun to wax lyrical-- I relate everything in my life to music (there, now you know something personal about me). Music is a second language to me. Which makes German, Japanese, and Spanish third, fourth, and fifth.

Why can't every conversation be this pleasant? Don't bother, I know. Still, talk of music helps me to appreciate others.

Oh! Favorite Firefall tune...
Sweet and Sour"
And I'm still bummed about the death of Dan Fogelberg last month.
 
My little brudder had a strange liking for Gene Pitney at the age of about 4.

For me, 7, when I wore my too-big-for-me Andy Gibb concert T-shirt as a night gown, I found "Liberty Valence" to be strange song.

Who would shoot a red, white, and blue window treatment?

And to think that I ended up hetero and married despite those two strange facts (aside from what I do for a living, too)?
 
"Who would shoot a red, white, and blue window treatment?"

Allright! Ya got whilst sippin' my beverage! Pardon me while I wipe up.

First, tobacca. Worked with a kid, a pitcher on his high school team, who used to chaw at the bench. He'd spit it in Burger King cup. I'd give him the business and he'd point to my ciggie in the ashtray and give it back. I responded, "I'd rather have one lung, than one lip."

Music.

Glen Campbell. Awesome guitar player, studio guy who did enjoyable stuff but was better at jammin'.

Kansas. Like 'em more now than then, when I was still riding on Cream, Hendrix, Stones, Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, Amboy Dukes (Ted Nugent), and others. For softer stuff, James Taylor, CSN&orY, and others. Of course Beatles. Tale end of Woodstock Gen getting outa HS in 73. Love that James Mason tune. I think it's in open E. Did "Don't Dream It's Over" in one of my bands. Enjoy many blues artists. Big Johnny Winter fan and dig Edgar as well. (Whatever happend to Jerry LeCroix?) SR Vaughn fan. RIP. BB, Muddy, James Cotton. Oldest friend blows harp in a Warsaw IN blues band. All the above a mere tip of the iceberg. Memories? Yes' "Roundabout" provokes trails, as does McCartney's "Ram". Don't ask. I'm sorry. Did I mention Zep, Who, Sly Stone?

Geoffrey. I was with you until Firefall. Foggy on Ambrosia, but I feel like perhaps you might need to slap yourself. Other than that, I've checked the many Music Mondays and I dig the wide range.

Like Dewey Finn says, "A good rock song can change the world." At least in our heads.

Seals and Croft. Yellow Dirt.

"He gits up ev'ry mornin' an he lites across the floor,
Migrates to the bathroom an he opens up the door.
The whiskers on 'is chin tells him he's 'in and then...."

Haven't heard that in years.

"He's a sandwich of a fellow
An all-spread personality.
So infected with disease of Yellow Dirt down in his sooooooul."

Finally...

SMOKIE????? What in the name of Joni Mitchell was THAT??!!??
 
"Liberty valence" -- ouch, ouch, ouch, hazelnut coffee, nose, ouch!
 
ER, indeed, music doth soothe the savage breast.
 
Crap. I'm talkin' to myself.

EL, music does soothe savage breast.
 
Hey, "Living Next Door to Alice" made it to No. 53 on Billboard!

Oh, man, y'all have GOT to look up "Living Next Door to Alice" on Wiki.

Hoot. More coffee up nose! Ouch!
 
Final note on this thread...

ER, "Yellow Dirt" is on the same LP as "East of Ginger Trees," and "Summer Breeze." "Yellow Dirt" is also a really cool tune.

And finally, McCartney's "Ram"? Wow! Love it! Especially "3 Legs"... AWESOME LP! And I get your 'Don't Ask...' comment. I can't tell you why "Ram" sticks in my soul either.

[woofo]
 
EL, you say you relate everything in your life to music. I do, too. Sometimes, I think, too much. Music gives my life meaning and shape. It is the heart of the best memories, the cue to many reveries.

We aren't that different, you and I. Maybe, perhaps, we can learn to disagree without getting all hurt and angry at one another. That is all I have every wanted. Perhaps my own weaknesses get in the way (I say perhaps, when there is no "perhaps" about it . . .).

Now see? I'm getting all mushy. Stop it!
 
To return briefly to what Senor Basura said up top: there was also Oregon (a jazz fusion group anchored by Ralph Towner) and Orleans (who did "Dance With Me", and I believe gave us our most recent congressman from New Jersey).

Of the three songs, I believe I love the Glen Campbell selection the best.
 
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