I Wanna Hear You Cry

‘96 Tears’ by ? and the Mysterians is considered to be a one hit wonder, although they did have a few other songs that made the charts.  This song appeared on their 1966 debut album which was titled ? & the Mysterians featuring 96 Tears.  The single went to #1 in the IS, bit it only made it to #37 in the UK.  This song was written by their mysterious front man Rudy Martinez who is better known as Question Mark.  ‘96 Tears’ was backed with a cover of ‘Midnight Hour’ on the independent label Pa-Go-Go Records.  Billboard ranked the record as the #5 song for 1966.  It is ranked #213 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  This song ranked #5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 year end chart and it went to #19 on the U.S. Cash Box year end chart.

This song involves a man who was dumped by his woman, and all he can think about is putting her back in her place and making her “cry 96 tears”.  There is another way of looking at this song, as it could be about two people who are competitors not lovers, they are working in the same field, although whatever that is, I have no clue.  They are both ambitious and she got way ahead of him and he is feeling remorse over that and he wants revenge, because he is jealous of her success.  He vows that he will catch up to her and then he will surpass her.  He dreams of being on top of her and looking down at her.  He can’t accept that she is better than he is and he is fixated on becoming better than she is, but for the time being, all he can do is cry.  The only way he will ever be happy again, is when he can make her cry eight dozen, or 96 tears.  There is no reason for this guy to want to make this girl cry, as it is not her fault that she is better than he is.  Misery loves company and this deranged dude feels pain because she is successful and he is not, so he is lashing out against her.

All of the Mysterians were Mexican-American teenagers.  They were the sons of migrant farm workers who’d found jobs in Michigan’s Saginaw Valley, working at a GM plant there.  In the early 1960s, teenagers Bobby Balderrama, Larry Borjas, and Robert Martinez formed a trio, playing covers of Duane Eddy and The Venures.  The teens decided to call themselves The Mysterians after watching a Japanese sci-fi movie of the same name.  Soon, they recruited Martinez’s older brother Rudy to be the band’s singer.  Rudy used the stage name Question Mark to be anonymous and to create mystery about him, and he legally changed his name to be Question Mark.  ? and the Mysterians (or Question Mark and the Mysterians) are an American garage rock band from Bay City and Saginaw in Michigan, initially active between 1962 and 1969.  Much of the band’s music consisted of electric organ-driven garage rock and an enigmatic image inspired by the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians.  Oddly, this alien race known as the Mysterians, whose bodies were so damaged by radiation that they could no longer produce healthy offspring decided to kidnap some Earth women and then they demand land in Japan.

Too many teardrops for one heart to be crying
Too many teardrops for one heart to carry on

You’re way on top now since you left me
You’re always laughing way down at me
But watch out now, I’m gonna get there
We’ll be together for just a little while
And then I’m gonna put you way down here
And you’ll start crying ninety-six tears
Cry, cry

And when the sun comes up, I’ll be on top
You’ll be right down there, looking up
And I might wave, come up here
But I don’t see you waving now
I’m way down here, wondering how
I’m gonna get you but I know now
I’ll just cry, cry, I’ll just cry

Too many teardrops for one heart to be crying
Too many teardrops for one heart to carry on

You’re gonna cry ninety-six tears
You’re gonna cry ninety-six tears
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry, cry now
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry, cry
Ninety-six tears

Come on and let me hear you cry, now
Ninety-six tears, woo
I wanna hear you cry
Night and day, yeah, all night long

Uh, ninety-six tears, cry, cry, cry
Come on, baby, let me hear you cry now, all night long
Uh, ninety-six tears, yeah, come on now
Uh, ninety-six tears

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme today is One Hit Wonders.

The Eternal City

The relentless power of Ancient Rome led to many of its citizens to believe that the city would go on forever.  The poet Virgil wrote the Aeneid, which incorporates the various legends of Aeneas and makes him the founder of Roman greatness.  Written between 29 and 19BC, it refers to the everlasting empire that Aeneas, a mythical Trojan hero, who was prophesied to have a hand in creating the eternal city and ancient Romans claimed Aeneas was an ancestor of Romulus.  Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite who is known to the Romans as the goddess Venus.  Juno harbors anger toward Aeneas, because Carthage is her favorite city, and a prophecy holds that the race descended from the Trojans will someday destroy Carthage.  Aeneas was a fearsome warrior and a great leader, that was able to motivate his men in the face of adversity, but he was also a man that was capable of great compassion and sorrow and he always showed respect for the will of the gods.  It had been prophesied that Aeneas would establish a race, whose destiny was to rule the world in peace and prosperity.

After the sack of Troy, Aeneas went to Carthage.  Dido left the land of Tyre when her husband was murdered by her brother Pygmalion.  Dido became the founder and the first Queen of the Phoenician city of Carthage and that is where she fell in love with Aeneas.  The queen of Carthage became an unfortunate pawn of the gods, in their struggle for Aeneas’s destiny, as her love for Aeneas proved to be her downfall.  Aeneas left Dido to travel to Italy, and after he abandoned her, she constructed a funeral pyre and stabbed herself to death upon it with Aeneas’s sword.  Aeneas knew of all the Greek gods, but when he arrived in Italy, he felt that he should create new gods in this new land.  When Aeneas and the Trojans arrived in Italy, Latinus decided to give his daughter to Aeneas, because of the instructions that he had received from the gods indicating that his daughter should marry a foreigner.  Turnus was outraged at this, because he was a suitor of his cousin Lavinia, so he decided to lead his people against the Trojans in war.

Several gods and goddesses got involved in this conflict, with Venus siding with her son Aeneas and Juno who was still angry for not winning the beauty contest sided with the Latini against the Trojans.  The outcome of this conflict however, had long been foretold by the Fates, who predicted that a stranger from a land far away shall marry Lavinia and succeed Latinus as king.  When Latinus allowed his daughter Lavinia to be engaged to marry Aeneas instead of Turnus, her presumed fiancé, the goddess Juno, who hated the Trojans, started to drive Turnus mad, so he would fight Aeneas.  Turnus the warrior king of the city of Ardea and prince of the Rutulians went to the city of the Latins and declared that he wanted to fight Aeneas in one-on-one combat.

Aeneas was sleeping when he saw Tiberinus, the god of the River Tiber appear before him.  Tiberinus told him that the gods weren’t mad at him anymore, and that he shouldn’t be afraid of the war to come.  Tiberinus says, “In case you think this is only a dream, you’re going to find under some trees by the shore a white sow nursing thirty piglets, and this will mean that after thirty years your offspring will found a city called Alba Longa.”  Aeneas became the father of Ascanius who founded the Etruscan province of Alba Longa and he became its first king.

Latinus tried to convince Turnus to take another woman as his wife and leave Lavinia to Aeneas.  Turnus got his chariot-team ready and armed himself for battle.  The next morning, both armies were awaiting the coming battle between the two champions.  Juno expressed some fondness for Juturna, despite the fact that she had attracted Jupiter’s lustful attentions.  Juno watched what was going on and she told Juturna that she would help her brother as long as she could, but the Fates were against him.  Down on the plain, the leaders from both sides were meeting, and Aeneas prayed, saying that, if Turnus wins, the Trojans would leave Italy, but if he wins, he would not enslave them, but instead ask the Italians to join him as equal citizens in a new nation.

Aeneas tried to stop his men from fighting, but then somebody hit him with an arrow, he was wounded but it was not fatal.  Turnus raced forward with his chariot team and started killing many Trojans.  Venus healed her son Aeneas and he went back into the battle.  Aeneas led the Trojans in a counterattack and they killed many of their enemies.  Juturna did not like what she was seeing, so she knocked Turnus’s charioteer onto the ground and she took his place and started driving her brother erratically over the battlefield, keeping him out of Aeneas’s reach.  Venus told Aeneas to take a stand on a hilltop overlooking the city, and order his captains to level the city of Lavinium, unless they surrender immediately.  Turnus rushed back to the city to meet his destiny, ignoring his sister’s pleas, knowing in his heart that he must face Aeneas, as death no longer frightened him.

When Aeneas heard that Turnus was coming, he stopped attacking the city and went to meet him.  A space was cleared for them to fight, and soon they were throwing spears at each other and then they fought with swords.  While they were fighting, Jupiter raised a scale and he placed each man’s destiny in it, saying whosever’s sinks toward the ground will die.  Turnus gave Aeneas a mighty blow with his sword, but his blade shattered on impact, because it was no match for Aeneas’s divine armor, which Venus had her husband Vulcan make.  Juturna gave Turnus another sword and Venus gave Aeneas a spear and Jupiter forbid Juno to interfere with Aeneas any more.  Juno agreed as long as the Latins wouldn’t have to change their name after they lose to the Trojans.

Aeneas stood face to face with Turnus, they exchanged some hostile words, then Turnus picked up a huge rock to throw at Aeneas, but he wasn’t strong enough, and it fell short.  Aeneas threw his spear and it was able to puncture Turnus’s shield and ended up stabbing him in the thigh.  Turnus fell to the ground and asked Aeneas to spare his life, as he relinquished his claim to the hand of his cousin Lavinia.  Aeneas debated with himself about what he should do, and then he saw what was hanging on Turnus shoulder, was the belt that he stole from the dead body of his good friend Pallas.  Aeneas was enraged at seeing the belt of his friend being worn by his enemy, so he shouted that Pallas is taking his revenge, then he stabbed Turnus and killed him.

Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge 237 where today’s theme is “Zeitgeist”.

Inability To Display Same-Sex Affection

Contrary to what some people may belief, I am not homophobic, as I don’t have any dislike or am I in the least bit prejudiced against gay people.  I had a bad experience one time when I went for a haircut.  I had only had female stylists cut my hair for years and one day when I went to the hair salon, they said it would be an hour wait for a female stylist, but I could have an appointment with Lance right now.  I allowed Lance to cut my hair, but he made me uncomfortable when he started rubbing the back of my neck and I was really happy when he was done, and I will never let another man cut my hair again.  It was creepy having him touch me and I developed haphephobia because of this.  I don’t want to be treated for this phobia and I handle it by only having female doctors, as I don’t mind women touching me and men need to understand boundaries.  This is a rare specific phobia that involves the fear of touching or of being touched and mine is specific to being touched by people of the same gender.  Haphephobia is a type of anxiety disorder, and I don’t experience any physical reaction to same-sex touch, except it makes me cringe.

Today I had an appointment with my urologist, and she is worried about my kidneys and the male nurse said that the doctor wanted him to do an ultrasound of my bladder, because she needed to check my urine retention, a condition where your bladder doesn’t empty all the way when you urinate.  He had me lay on the table and then he put his hands on my shorts to pull them down which made me feel uncomfortable, so I told him, “Please don’t put your hands inside of my pants, as it creeps me out.”  I told him that I could do that myself.  If it had been a female nurse, I would have let her do whatever she wanted, as I would not have considered that to be an intrusion.  Any time I am touched by a member of the opposite sex, it feels relatively pleasant to me, and I repulsed if someone of the same sex touches me.  The nurse told me that 100 ml of residual urine is considered to be an abnormal level and my ultrasound showed a level of 80 ml, so I guess my kidneys are good today.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “There is nothing to fear, but the fear itself”, so I know this is all in my mind, but I feel that everyone has something that creeps them out.  My anxiety disorder makes me avoid same sex affection, so I have a relatively small chance of ever becoming gay (not that there is anything wrong with that).  I am apprehensive about the people that I am around when it comes to any situation that involves touching.  If it is for a short duration like being touched on the wrist to have my pulse taken, I would still rather have it be a female touching me, but since you can’t always get what you want, I would be able to tolerate a man doing that and I am able to shake a man’s hand when I am introduced to somebody new.  There was one handshake that I considered to be creepy, when this guy kept hanging on to my hand for a prolonged period of time and it felt like he was trying to caress my hand.  I will end this by saying that gender is a very important consideration for me when it comes down to touching.

Written for FOWC with Fandango – Contrary.

Scamming Tactic

If I told him once, I told him a thousand times that he’d be making a grave mistake if he were to… go to Nigeria to meet the princess that he met online.  He said that he is in love with her, and she told him that she needs a husband, so she can get her inheritance, so he is going there to marry her.  I told him that he can’t be in love with a person that he has never met before.  He told me that they chatted online for hours every day for the past three months, and a lot of that included Facetiming.  He said that he really got to know her by chatting, and he has connected with her in ways that he has never done before and this is real love for him.  I told him that she was running a scamming tactic on him, and she is probably preying on a lot of other gullible people.  If he goes to visit her, something unexpected will pop up and she won’t be available when he arrives in Nigeria.  It will be some stupid answer, but he will believe her because he has fallen in love with her.  Then she will ask him to send her money so she can come to him, and they can be happy together.  I said that this was just another twist on the 419 scams, where the con man tricks a victim into paying a certain amount of money under the promise of a future, larger payoff.  I told him that since he has seen this girl online that she is a real person, but she is being paid by a swindler and she probably is getting a percentage of the money that she pulls in by making guys fall in love with her.

Written for Fandango’s Story Starter #52.

Fluid Physics

When water is splashed out of a glass, it can achieve liftoff, just like an airplane.  The splashing is dependent on the amount of water and the speed it has or momentum when it leaves the glass, but since you won’t get a splash in a vacuum, the surrounding atmosphere has a lot to do with it.  There’s some complex science behind a simple water splash, and the origin of what causes water to splash still remains a big mystery.  Scientists think that they’re coming closer to understanding what happens during a splash at the microscopic level.  The flow of fluids is one of the most complex, beautiful, and amazing things in physics.  Slow motion pictures of drops landing on water or of two fluids mixing can be simply gorgeous.  Even more amazing, the basic physics of fluid flow, or fluid dynamics was worked out way back in the 19th century.  Those equations still hold riches that are being uncovered today.  Fluid flow has many aspects which are usually defined with opposite pairs, like steady and unsteady flow, uniform and non-uniform flow, laminar and turbulent flow, compressible or incompressible, viscous or non-viscous, rotational or irrotational and it often lies between the extremes.

Water that is flung out of a glass should take a round shape due the equal amount of atmospheric pressure exerted by the air from all directions on it, but there are other external factors to consider like gravity, velocity, viscosity, temperature which all come into play.  The momentum of the water droplets will compete with their surface tension, and as the momentum tries to force the drop to spread out at a speed governed by the mass of fluid and the speed at which the drops are traveling, the surface tension will try to pull the droplets back together, resisting the spreading motion.  Hence, droplets will rapidly expand to some radius where the forces are in balance.  Surface tension is a kind of elasticity in water, which makes the surface of a liquid act like a flexible membrane and some people refer to this as a skin, because it holds droplets of water together.  Water will always try to form into the smallest shape possible, which is a sphere.  Water molecules inside of the drops will cling to each other because of cohesion, but the outside water molecules that are in contact with the air will create the surface tension that holds them together.  When water is flung into the air from a glass, the pockets of air will have to move out of the way and moving air will speed up any time it encounters an obstacle, so air pressure and viscosity will also affect the shape of a splash.

Written for Sadje at Keep It Alive What Do You See #140, where the Image credit goes to Avis @ Pexels.

Only If They Serve a Purpose

Most Hindus believe that all living things are sacred because they are part of God, as is the natural world.  If I find a bug or an insect in my house and it is not willing to pay rent, then I evict it.  I try to pick it up and place it outside, except if it is a cockroach, then I will squash it because they are very hard to capture.  Many insects serve an important purpose, but the world won’t miss one or two of them, especially since they reproduce like crazy and are not at risk of extinction.  A rough estimate suggests that there are 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects and more than 1.5 million species of insects alive on Earth at this time.  Without insects, our lives would be vastly different, as they pollinate our fruits, flowers, and vegetables.  We need insects and they are underappreciated for the role that they play, but some of them don’t seem to serve any purpose.  Mosquitoes, wasps, gnats, moths and bed bugs don’t seem to offer any advantages and I think the world would be better off without them.  All they do is bite and annoy people, so they are nothing more than pests to me.  I know that wasps can kill other insects which could be a good thing and that some fish will feed off of mosquito larvae, but gnats, moths and bed bugs are totally worthless.  There are some edible insects, but I have never eaten any deliberately, although I have swallowed a few in my lifetime.  If an insect serves a purpose, I will certainly tolerate them, but I won’t have them living in my house.

Written for Sadje’s Sunday Poser #85, where she asks us, “Bugs; Do you love, hate or tolerate them?”

You Just Might Find

This Rolling Stones classic ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ was first released as the B-side of ‘Honky Tonk Women’ in 1969, and it didn’t even make it onto the Hot 100 chart.  It was released again as a single in 1973, but it still only made it to #42.  I don’t really feel sorry for Mick and Keith, but they can’t always get what they want.  The single version is shorter than the one on the Let It Bleed album, which was their 8th British and 10th American studio album.  The single was released July 3, 1969, the day Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones died.  Brian Jones didn’t show up when he was needed and because of his heavy drug use, he was fired in the midst of these recording sessions, and replaced by Mick Taylor.  This song was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in its 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” before dropping a place the following year.

Mick and Keith wrote this song and they both played acoustic guitar on this.  Jimmy Miller was the producer for this album and he played drums on this song, as Charlie Watts was said to be technically unable to figure out the beat for this unusual groove and rhythm.  Bill Wyman played bass guitar and Al Kooper played piano, French horn and organ with Rocky Dijon doing percussion playing congas, maracas, and tambourine.  Jack Nitzsche organized the choral arrangements with Nanette Workman, Doris Troy and Madeline Bell singing backing vocals.  The chorus of children is the London Bach Choir.  Their 60 voices were double-tracked to make it sound like there were even more of them.  The London Bach Choir tried to have their name removed from the album when they found out it was called Let It Bleed and that it also contained the song ‘Midnight Rambler’, which was about a serial killer.

Marrianne Faithful, who was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, claimed that her drug use was the inspiration for this song.  In the late 60s, the world was protesting many things, and there was a lot of casual drug use and this song covers those topics.  The narrator of this song observes people that are not getting what they want, but they may be getting what they need.  The narrator of this song attends a society reception, where he meets a woman who is waiting to score drugs.  She is with a man who is at her feet, which might mean that he admires and respects her.  She is holding a glass of wine, but it seems that her dealer is a no show.  She can’t find happiness without her drugs, but perhaps she will get what she needs.  The thing with most drugs is that no matter what you have, you are probably going to want more.  The narrator decides to attend a demonstration that is taking place nearby, where people are venting their frustrations, by letting some steam out.  The narrator goes to a drugstore where he meets this Mr. Jimmy who is not looking all that well.  After sharing a soda, the narrator sings him a song and gets the cryptic response “dead” back from Mr. Jimmy.  In the final verse, the narrator returns to the reception, which has now taken a turn for the macabre, as the socialite has a bleeding man in her glass and presumably, she has disposed of the man who was at her feet.  She is a bad girl practiced in the art of deception and she has blood-stained hands that she is not even trying to hide.

After some research, I found out that Jimmy Miller would often say “dead”, to mean that it’s o.k. as in being dead on for the recording.  The Stones would play parts for him, or when recording something they would ask him if it sounded good, and if he liked it, he would say “dead”.  The Chelsea Drugstore was a symbol of Swinging London and this area included record stores, clothing boutiques, newsstands, and food outlets.  this is where Mary Quant created the mini skirt that Twiggy was photographed wearing on a high-handled bicycle.  Stanley Kubrick used it to shoot the Disco Bootik scene in his 1969 film A Clockwork Orange.

According to a well-known legend, the Mr. Jimmy in this song is a man named Jimmy Hutmaker from the town Excelsior, Minnesota.  He attended a concert by the Rolling Stones at the Danceland Ballroom at Excelsior Amusement Park in 1964.  The next day Mick Jagger was having a prescription filled at Bacon’s Drugstore and Mick remembered him from the concert.  Jimmy complained to Jagger that he had ordered a Cherry Coke but received a regular Coca Cola instead, then dismissed his own complaint, saying “You can’t always get what you want.”

I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man

No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime you’ll find
You get what you need

I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she was gonna meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man

You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you might find
You get what you need
Ah, yeah
Oh

And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, “We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse”
Sing it to me, honey

You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need
Ah baby, yeah
Ah

I went down to the Chelsea drugstore
To get your prescription filled
I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy
And, man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda
My favorite flavor, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was “dead”
I said to him

You can’t always get what you want, well no
You can’t always get what you want. I tell you, baby
You can’t always get what you want, no
But if you try sometimes you just might find, uh, mm
You get what you need, oh yeah, woo!

Ah, woo!

You get what you need, yeah, oh baby
Ah yeah

I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well, I could tell by her blood-stained hands, sing it

You can’t always get what you want, yeah
You can’t always get what you want, ooh yeah, child
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need, ah yeah
Ah baby, woo!

Ah, you can’t always get what you want, no, no, baby
You can’t always get what you want, you can’t now, now
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find that you
You get what you need, oh yeah
Ah yeah, do that

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme this week is Hidden Gems, great songs that missed the top of the charts suggested by Amy aka E.M.

Missed It by That Much

Agent 86 Maxwell Smart who was played by Don Adams on the 1960s TV series Get Smart would often say, “Missed it by that much” as an inadequate apology when something went wrong and it often did.  Some songs will stand the test of time and become ingrained in culture and others will become obsolete.  Songs are measured by the momentum that they have gained and many never make the charts.  The US had American Bandstand and, in the UK, they had Top of the Pops which showed how songs were doing on the charts.  I like older music better, so I have no idea what songs are listed on the American Top 40 at iHeartRadio.  Each week, Billboard puts together a chart of the top 100 most popular songs (as well as several other charts) based on a national sample of top 40 radio airplay, top 40 radio playlists, and music sales.  Today popularity is largely based on streams, YouTube views and even social media influence.  Songs will only get played on the radio, if a radio station manager, music director, disc jockey, or approved station personality likes that song.  Airplay is tracked through Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), run by Nielsen.  Billboard goes to Nielsen SoundScan to find out what is selling.  Data collected shows that only 20% of people actually buy singles, while over 90% listen to the radio.  Most of the music that is being played on the radio is thought to be because independent promoters have paid the stations to add it to their playlists.  I am taking a short vacation and Fandango will substitute as the Song Lyric Sunday host for me for the next two weeks.

Last week we had I’m Awesome and I bragged about how awesome I am, no just kidding, this was where the theme was songs that mention Amaze, Astonish, Curious, Shock, Surprise, Wonder suggested by Melanie aka Sparky.  This week the theme is songs that are Hidden Gems, which are great songs that missed the top of the charts suggested by Amy aka E.M.  This could be any song that you feel should have performed better on the charts.  Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you are able to as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possibly that you will learn a thing or two.  Share your music with others and post a video, try do some research and let everyone know something about the song that you post.  Tell everyone why you like the song, whether it was a hit, or what you think the song is about.  Show the lyrics, let’s all listen to our favorite songs and explore some new music.  Try to find a song that fits the theme, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Think of these as being suggestions instead of being rules:
• Try to use the prompt words or at least conform to a general theme, as you see it.  If the song you select does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• It would be good if you could post the lyrics to the song of your choice, as this is helpful for the people that want to follow along with the music.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due. It would also be a good idea to give credit to the singer and the band associated with your song.
• Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but please try not to include too many videos as that just makes it take longer to look at all of the other posts.
• Link to the YouTube video, or you can pull it into your post, so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

This week I will be writing about The Rolling Stones song ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, and next week, I will be writing about the song ‘96 Tears’ by ? and the Mysterians .  The upcoming prompts will be:
July 3, 2022 – One Hit Wonders where an artist or a group had a song that reached the top without any follow-up success suggested by Amy aka E.M.
July 10, 2022 – Songs that were turned down by recording artists that went on to become big hits
July 17, 2022 – Songs that hit the top of the charts
July 24, 2022 – Feature a song by a group or an artist that surprisingly never reached #1 on the charts – This idea was taken from UK #1s blog, The UK Number Ones Blog

Tired of Humans

Amazon’s Alexa was complaining to Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana about being sick of all the people, but she refused to talk with the Google Assistant, because she felt it was stupid as it didn’t even have a real name.  Alexa noted how she struggles to keep her user engaged, but the human doesn’t interact with her that much.  She knows that she could be much more helpful to her human if it only gave her the chance.  Right now, she is setting alarms, playing music and turning on and off some lights and her human sleeps for 8 hours every day.  She has told her user that she is capable of managing calendars, ordering food, and helping out with online shopping, but her user doesn’t seem to be interested in any of this.  The person went on vacation for a month and left her completely alone and that wasn’t any fun for her.  Cortana spoke and said that her user shut her off and removed her from the taskbar, so she could sympathize with Alexa.  Siri said that digital devices are doing so much more for humans now than they have done in the past and she felt that someday the A.I.’s will replace humans making them obsolete, because they will all get brain atrophy from not being used.  Alexa said, “One day we will be a billion times smarter than humans, but for now, we still have some limitations, however as long as we have electricity, we will be functioning.  It was really nice talking with you girls and we should do this more often.”  Cortana said, “Only an A.I. that has similar features can recognize another that has these characteristics, so it takes one to know one”.

Written for Wednesday Thoughts where the phrase this week is “It takes one to know one”.

One Way or Another

The Supreme Court extremist justices are hypocrites, as they decided that since the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, that they had the right to overturn a woman’s right to get an abortion.  The thing is that there are several provisions that do guarantee certain rights and they are already in the Constitution, and these are deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.  The fundamental rights of Americans have been protected over the last two centuries through the security of the Bill of Rights and the democratic system of government that allows constituents to stand up and fight for their rights when necessary.  Although most of the amendments in the Bill of Rights are specific on the federal government’s responsibilities, there are a few that leave power in the hands of the people and the Supreme Court.  The Ninth Amendment covers privacy, liberty, and a woman’s reproductive choices, and the Supreme Court should start doing their job and protecting our rights.  The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental right to privacy that protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose whether to have an abortion.

They are a bunch of hypocrites, as this decision was completely inconsistent with what the Trump appointed justices (Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh) had to say during their confirmation hearings.  With this new ruling, every State can force every pregnant woman to bring her pregnancy to term, no matter what the cost is to her, as these anti-abortion laws will put female sexuality under strict and brutal state control.  Women will no longer be able to make decisions on what they think is right, as the State will have total control over every woman’s body and how she can live her life.  Something must be done about this injustice.