Behind the Wheel of a Large Automobile

‘Once in a Lifetime’ was released in 1980 on the Talking Heads fourth album Remain in Light, where they were all were operating at the top of their game.  The members of Talking Heads David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison used a more democratic process on this song, trying something new by all contributing to the writing along with the track’s producer, Brian Eno, instead of leaving everything up to Byrne.  Eno and the Talking Heads developed ‘Once in a Lifetime’ through extensive jams, inspired by Afrobeat musicians such as Fela Kuti.  Bassist Tina Weymouth came up with a striking bass line, and the band took that lick and extrapolated it, slowly building a piece around it.  After weeks of jamming, David Byrne and producer Brian Eno came in to the studio to start adding arrangements and lyrics to the music pieces to develop music that created a trancelike state, capturing the manic monotony of middle-class existence.

‘Once in a Lifetime’ peaked at #14 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified silver in the UK in 2018, but it didn’t break into the Billboard Hot 100 on its initial release.  NPR web music magazine named this song one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists it as one of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.  David Byrne’s lyrics and vocals were inspired by preachers delivering sermons.  This song deals with the futility of not being happy with the things you have and the lyrics were written in a stream-of-consciousness approach, with one thought leading to the next.  The song features a water theme, with water giving life to everything around us, but also holding us down possibly causing us to drown.  Water represents how life is flexible, as it is constantly flowing under your feet.  You can try saving some water for later but if you try taking water from the bottom of the ocean, it won’t make any difference, as more water will still be down there, so this act is meaningless and fruitless.  At the bottom of the ocean, water is cold, you can’t breathe and the pressure will crush you.  Trying to remove the water at the bottom of the ocean, is an analogy standing for the fact that there is no way to stop life from moving on.

The lyrics relate to many average citizens who are not living their lives, because they just let the days pass by and they only worry about life when they run out of money.  These people exist, but their lives are like a hamster on a wheel, bot resembling reality.  The beautiful house, this beautiful wife and his large car have this guy wondering how he ever got into this situation.  In the refrain of the song a very dull repetition of “same as it ever was” occurs 8 times.  This gives the listener a hint at how this guy’s life has become monotonous and routine.  He has trouble believing what is going on and he exclaims, “My God!  What have I done?”

This song touches on how people can operate being half awake, or on autopilot, or not necessarily acting under their own accord, and end up with a house and family and job and everything that the American Dream allows then to have, but they don’t have a clue as to how they accumulated all of this stuff.  At the end of the day, he doesn’t know how he got to this point in his life by following a preset path that destiny took him to.  This leaves him living his life in apathy having these shocking half-hearted expressions that cast self-doubt that his life is real.  He feels that if he stops moving and looks at where he is in his life, that all he will see is a world that is nothing more than a fantasy which leads to his complacency.  He is left with existential questions and all he can do is to embrace the absurdity of life.

David Byrne said that most of lyrics were taken from evangelists that he heard on the radio while he was taking notes and picking up phrases, he thought were interesting.  He thought he might be fascinated with the middle class, because it seems so different from his life, and from what he does.  The music video, co-directed by Toni Basil, has Byrne dancing erratically over footage of religious rituals which were inspired by different trances in church and trances involving snakes.  Byrne’s moves resemble spasms like a malfunctioning robot might do and they are interspersed with him gesturing in Martian sign language, which went over big on MTV.

Talking Heads was an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.  The band comprised David Byrne (vocals and guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass) and Jerry Harrison (keyboards and guitar).  Auxiliary musicians also regularly made appearances in concert and on the group’s albums.  The New Wave style of Talking Heads combined elements of punk, art rock, avant-garde, pop, funk, world music, and Americana.  Frontman and songwriter David Byrne contributed whimsical, esoteric lyrics to the band’s songs, and emphasized their showmanship through various multimedia projects and performances.

And you may find yourself
Living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself
In another part of the world
And you may find yourself
Behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was

Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!
Water dissolving and water removing

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again into silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

You may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
You may ask yourself
Where does that highway go to?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say yourself
“My God! What have I done?”

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Look where my hand was
Time isn’t holding up
Time isn’t after us
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Letting the days go by
Same as it ever was
And here the twister comes
Here comes the twister

Letting the days go by (same as it ever was)
Same as it ever was (same as it ever was)
Letting the days go by (same as it ever was)
Same as it ever was
Once in a lifetime
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle.

Awesome Autos, Classy Cars, Jumping Jalopies, and Various Vehicles

Janis prayed for one, the Beach Boys had one with a rather large engine, Bruce liked pink and Prince preferred red.  A midsize luxury four-door sedan, a two-door coupe, a sleek convertible, a snazzy sports car, a station wagon, a hatchback, the sports utility vehicle, the crossover, a full-size van or a minivan, a pickup truck, there are so many choices, making me wonder which one is right for me.  I don’t really care all that much about what color it is, but the size, price, fuel efficiency, performance, reliability, safety, comfort, luxury and style are all important factors.  Maybe I should consider a jeep, or a military vehicle, or a dragster, or a hotrod, possibly a stretch limousine.  I don’t want anything that runs on diesel, but I would consider getting a hybrid, or just go all in and get one of those electric cars.  Now I have to chose between a brand new car, or certified pre owned one where they show me the Car Fax.

Last week we had Heartbreaker, with the theme being breakup songs which was suggested by Janis of themomshiediaries.  Our theme this week is Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of Sparks From A Combustible Mind.  I am certain that everyone will all be able to find songs ending a relationship or dumping a lover.  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 prompt, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Here are the “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 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.

I am writing about the song ‘Once in a Lifetime’ by the Talking Heads today.  Next week, I will be writing about the John Hiatt song ‘Thing Called Love’ covered by Bonnie Raitt.  The upcoming prompts will be:
August 1, 2021 – Alluring, Beautiful, Charming, Graceful, Seductive
August 8, 2021 – Fate, Fortune, Luck
August 15, 2021 – Danger, Fear, Horror, Nightmare, Terror
August 22, 2021 – Sports songs

One Of the Great Breakup Songs

This breakup song ‘It’s Too Late’, doesn’t involve a person being upset or becoming heartbroken about the end of their relationship, it is a simple recognition that the couple isn’t working anymore, and that it’s time for them to move on and the girl couldn’t be nicer with the way she blows this guy off.  Carole King was finalizing her divorce from her first husband and former songwriting partner Gerry Goffin, when she moved from New York City to Laurel Canyon the rock mecca section near Los Angeles to find herself.  They were married in August 1959 and this ended in divorce in 1968, as their growing lifestyle differences became irreconcilable.  Goffin wrote the lyrics and King wrote the music for many hits in the 60s and these songwriters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.  Carole is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

Toni Stern a free-spirited painter, poet and lyricist from Los Angeles wrote the lyrics for the song ‘It’s Too Late’ after her relationship with James Taylor ended and he moved on to Joni Mitchell, but she won’t confirm who this song is about.  Timing plays a critical role for success in any relationship and when you are too late, you missed the boat and there is no going back once everything starts to disintegrate.  Having the wrong timing, almost guarantees an expiration date for your relationship and when you reach a certain point, all you can do is cherish the good memories, and try not to have too many regrets.  People change over time and they learn that they want different things and this could lead one of them to stop trying to make it work.

The day before Tapestry came out, Carole King turned 28, and that was a long time since she made her first record ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’, at age 3, on the boardwalk at Coney Island.  Carol began piano lessons at age 4, and when she was 8, she appeared with a classmate on the live television show The Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour, singing ‘If I’d Known You Were Coming, I’d Have Baked a Cake’.  Born Carol Klein on February 9, 1942, in Manhattan, New York, and raised in Brooklyn, while she was at James Madison High School, she chose the new last name “King” for herself as a stage name and formed her first quartet, the Co-Sines.  After years of being a songwriting housewife, she divorced Gerry Goffin and she started to hang out with musicians James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and she met Toni Stern who helped her transition from writing songs with Goffin to writing songs on her own.  During her time at Laurel Canyon, Carole became friends with James Taylor and went on tour with him.  This tour proved to be a defining moment of her career, as Taylor asked the shy and reluctant performer King to perform her song ‘Up on the Roof’ with him one night and this gave her the confidence that she lacked.

King brought her two young daughters to California, where she discovered her voice as both an individual songwriter and as a recording artist.  King signed with Lou Adler’s Ode label who was already famous for his work with Sam Cooke and the Mamas and the Papas.  King briefly formed a group called The City with Danny Kortchmar and Charles Larkey who she married in 1970.  The group only put out one album, Now That Everything’s Been Said.  They didn’t tour because King had stage fright, thus the album was never fully promoted and The City fell apart.  By the end of 1970, King began to devote herself exclusively to singing her own songs.  Her first album was titled Writer and it was released in 1970, but it was not a commercial success.

Tapestry was recorded in just three weeks, costing only $22,000 to make, as the composer was trying to raise her young children.  This album was #1 on Billboard for 17 weeks, it received four Grammy Awards in 1972, including Album of the Year and remained on the Billboard charts for 313 weeks and still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one by a female solo artist.  Carole King did little to promote it and it stayed on the charts for five years.  When the Grammy Awards were announced in 1972, Carole King’s album received four awards, more than any one artist had received in one evening up until that time.  Tapestry is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide.  It was certified Diamond by the RIAA in the United States, with more than 10 million copies sold.  In 2003, Tapestry was ranked number 36 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.  ‘It’s Too Late’ received a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, it was certified gold by the RIAA and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.

Stayed in bed all mornin’ just to pass the time
There’s somethin’ wrong here, there can be no denyin’
One of us is changin’, or maybe we’ve just stopped tryin’

And it’s too late, baby, now it’s too late
Though we really did try to make it
Somethin’ inside has died
And I can’t hide and I just can’t fake it
Oh, no, no, no, no, no
(No, no, no, no)

It used to be so easy, livin’ here with you
You were light and breezy, and I knew just what to do
Now you look so unhappy and I feel like a fool

And it’s too late, baby, now it’s too late
Though we really did try to make it (we can’t make it)
Somethin’ inside has died
And I can’t hide and I just can’t fake it
Oh, no, no

There’ll be good times again for me and you
But we just can’t stay together, don’t you feel it, too?
Still I’m glad for what we had and how I once loved you

But it’s too late, baby, now it’s too late
Though we really did try to make it (we can’t make it)
Somethin’ inside has died
And I can’t hide and I just can’t fake it
Oh, no, no, no, no

It’s too late, baby
It’s too late now, darling
It’s too late

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is breakup songs.

Heartbreaker

I broke up with my last girlfriend with a text message, because I didn’t want to see her, or talk with her anymore, so if you do it right, breaking up is not all that hard to do.  If you are in a relationship that is no longer working for either of you, and breaking up is inevitable, then let them know your feelings and why you are ending it and it would be best if you tried to avoid the cliché phrase, “It’s not you, it’s me”, as that will not ease their pain.  Breaking up can help to give you and your significant other the personal space that you both need to grow outside the confines of your current relationship.  That growth might make you realize you’re meant to be together and become the cure that saves your relationship, or it will be the signal that something is wrong, which can’t be fixed.  In that case, it is time to move on, as there is most likely another person out there that is better suited for you.

Last week we had Entomology, with the theme Bugs, Insects suggested by Amy Braun, ☆ai love music☆ aisasami.  Our theme this week is breakup songs suggested by Janis of themomshiediaries.  I am certain that everyone will all be able to find songs ending a relationship or dumping a lover.  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 prompt, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Here are the “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 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.

I am writing about the song ‘It’s Too Late’ by Carole King.  Next week, I will be writing about the Talking Heads song ‘Once in a Lifetime’.  The upcoming prompts will be:
July 25, 2021 – Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of sparksfromacombustiblemind
August 1, 2021 – Alluring, Beautiful, Charming, Graceful, Seductive
August 8, 2021 – Fate, Fortune, Luck
August 15, 2021 – Danger, Fear, Horror, Nightmare, Terror

Little Bugs Have Littler Bugs

In 1993, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman released an album containing children’s songs and it was titled Not For Kids Only.  This album included the traditional lighthearted ditty ‘There Ain’t No Bugs On Me’, and their version seems to be based on the Fiddlin’ John Carson & His Virginia Reelers song, which was recorded it in 1928.  A popular version of this song was published in 1923 by Wendell W. Hall, which contains very different lyrics.  At this time, the Ku Klux Klan attained great influence in the Southeast and Midwest, Billy Sunday was a popular evangelist, and the Scopes trial turned Darwinian biology into a courtroom circus.  “The night was dark and drizzly.  The air was full of sleet.  The old man joined the Ku Klux.  And Ma she lost her sheet.  Billy Sunday is a preacher.  His church is always full.  For the neighbors gather from miles around.  To hear him shoot the bull.  The monkey swings by the end of his tail.  And jumps from tree to tree.  There may be monkey in some of you guys.  But there ain’t no monkey in me.”

This song was popular with Boy Scouts when they were camping and it is clearly a modification of ‘It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More’, which was a hit in the US and also in Britain in the 1920s.  This song mentions flies, the Juney bug, a lightning bug, a bed bug, mosquitos, roaches, fleas and many other cute and interesting stuff.  “Oh, there ain’t no bugs on me, on me.  There ain’t no bugs on me.  There may be bugs on some of you mugs.  But there ain’t no bugs on me.  Oh there ain’t no flies on me, on me.  There ain’t no flies on me.  There may be flies on some of you guys.  But there ain’t no flies on me.
Well, the Juney bug comes in the month of June.  The lightning bug comes in May.  Bed bug comes just any old time.  But, they’re not going to stay.  Well, a bull frog sittin’ on a lily pad.  Looking up at the sky.  The lily pad broke and the frog fell in.  He got water all in his eye.  There ain’t no frogs on us.  There ain’t no frogs on us.  There might be frogs on some of you dogs, But there ain’t no frogs on us.

Mosquito he fly high.  Mosquito he fly low.  If old mosquito lands on me.  He ain’t a gonna fly no mo’.  A peanut sittin’ on a railroad track.  His heart was all a flutter.  Along come a choo-choo on the track.  Toot! Toot! Peanut butter!  A cow walked on the railroad track, the train was coming fast.  The train got off the railroad track to let the cow go past!  As I went walking through the woods.  Humming a tune so gaily.  The wind come whistling through the trees.  And froze my ukulele.  Oh there ain’t no lobsters on me.  There, ain’t no lobsters on me.  There may be lobsters On some of you mobsters.  But there ain’t no lobsters on me.

Oh it ain’t gonna rain no more no more.  It ain’t gonna rain no more.  How in the heck can I wash my neck?  When it ain’t gonna rain no more?  Well little bugs have littler bugs.  Up on their backs to bite’em.  And the littler bugs have still littler bugs.  And so ad infinitum.  We had a cat down on our farm.  It had a ball of yarn.  When those little cats were born.  They all had sweaters on.  She lay down by the sewer.  And by the sewer she died.  And at the coroner’s inquest.  They called it sewer side.  We had a goat down on our farm.  It ate up old tin cans.  When those little goats were born.  They came in Ford sedans.

Some people say that fleas are black.  But I know that ain’t so.  ‘Cause Marry had a little lamb.  Whose fleece was white as snow.  Mary had a little lamb, so goes the tale of yore.  She loved that little lamb so much, she passed the plate for more.  I woke up in the morning, I glanced upon the wall.  The roaches and the bedbugs were having a game of ball.  The score was six to nothing, the roaches were ahead.  A bedbug hit a home run and knocked me out of bed!  The chamber maid came to my bed.  Get up you lazy sinner.  We need the sheets for table cloths.  And it’s almost time for dinner.

Jack and Jill went up the hill.  To try out Jack’s new flivver.  The car broke down a mile from town.  And dumped them in the river.  A doctor fell into a well and broke his collar bone.  We think that he should tend the sick and leave the well alone.  A farmer slipped on the old barn roof when rotten boards gave way, And as he fell, he shrugged and said, ‘It’s time to hit the hay.’  Humpty Dumpty fell right down and landed on his head.  So, all the horses and the men had scrambled eggs and bread.”

This song ‘There Ain’t No Bugs On Me’ was arranged and performed by Garcia and Grisman and then it was made into a picture-book by illustrator Bruce Whatley, which is said to be suitable for kids aged 3-8.  Whatley, previously teamed with Garcia and Grisman for The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, and here he shows the bears as musicians heading out on tour and meeting a variety of insects and other creatures along the way.  Their leader, a bespectacled, white-muzzled bruin sporting a guitar with a rainbow strap, is a ringer for Garcia, and indeed, no bugs ever seem to land on him.  The bears are accompanied by a group of suitcase-toting insects whose antics provide most of the visual interest.

Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on some of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

Well, the Juney bug comes in the month of June
The lightning bug comes in May
Bed bug comes just any old time
But, they’re not going to stay

Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on the rest of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

Well, a bull frog sittin’ on a lily pad
Looking up at the sky
The lily pad broke and the frog fell in
He got water all in his eye…ball

Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on some of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

[Spoken: “Get away from me you horse fly”]

Mosquito he fly high
Mosquito he fly low
If old mosquito lands on me
He ain’t a gonna fly no mo’

Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on the rest of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

A peanut sittin’ on a railroad track
His heart was all a flutter
Along come a choo-choo on the track
Toot! Toot! Peanut butter!

Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on some of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

Well little bugs have littler bugs
Up on their backs to bite ‘em
And the littler bugs have still littler bugs
And so ad infinitum

Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on the rest of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is Bugs, Insects.

Entomology

Most kids are fascinated by bugs, but when they grow up to become adults, these same insects repulse them.  Ants, beetles, cockroaches, dragonflies, earwigs, flees, grasshoppers, lice, moths, praying mantids, silkworms, termites and wasps are all part of our world.  If you see a bug, don’t go “Yuck, that is so gross”, instead take out a magnifying glass and look at the minute legs and antennae, marvel at the colors and take delight in the weird designs that nature has provided for all of us.  Not every bug should be played with, bit it’s important to know which bugs are harmless and which ones should be left alone.  There is a distinct gender difference when it comes to a having a fondness for bugs, as young girls are frequently more willing to touch the arthropods than are very young boys, but at around age 7–8, the difference is reversed.

Last week we had saUSAge, with the theme of American music, which is any song played by an American group.  Our theme this week is Bugs, Insects suggested by Amy Braun, ☆ai love music☆ aisasami.  I am certain that everyone will all be able to find songs that feature some type of insect like an ant, a butterfly, a cricket, a glowworm, a gnat, a firefly, a spider, or a stink bug, if you just look around enough.  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 prompt, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Here are the “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 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.

I am writing about the song ‘There Ain’t No Bugs On Me’ by Jerry Garcia & David Grisman.  Next week, I will be writing about the Carole King song ‘It’s Too Late’.  The upcoming prompts will be:

July 18, 2021 – Breakup songs suggested by Janis of themomshiediaries

July 25, 2021 – Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of sparksfromacombustiblemind

August 1, 2021 – Alluring, Beautiful, Charming, Graceful, Seductive

August 8, 2021 – Fate, Fortune, Luck

Make It Last All Night

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida, that formed in 1976.  The band was originally comprised of Tom Petty (lead singer, guitar), Mike Campbell (lead guitarist), Ron Blair (bass guitar), Stan Lynch (drums), and Benmont Tench (keyboards).  This group was formed from a band that was originally called Mudcrutch and when they went to record an album the record company liked their music, but they only wanted Petty, not the band.  When Petty put this new band together, someone suggested that the new group should be called the Heartbreakers, which made Petty laugh, as he knew these guys and nothing could be further from the truth, as their first love was music, not girls, but it had a good ring to it and that became their name.

‘American Girl’ was written by Tom Petty and recorded on the group’s self-titled debut album, which was released in 1976.  This song didn’t make the US charts on its initial release, although it did make the British Top 40 and it got to the American charts with its re-release in 1994 on Petty’s Greatest Hits album.  The band was reportedly frustrated that FM radio program directors didn’t push the song back home.  This was always a popular song when it was played at any of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concerts and many people have said it is his best song.  The lyrics in this song hit at certain mysterious things about this American girl.  Some people say Petty wrote this about a University of Florida coed who jumped to her death from the Beatty Towers dormitory and his fans do seem to enjoy working on a mystery.  Another variation of the urban legend has the unnamed girl tripping on hallucinogens and attempting to fly, so this song has attracted its own urban mythology and it became one of the most covered tracks in music history.  All of these stories are myths, but the whole jumping suicide thing is very eerie and since Petty quit High School in order to pursue his music career, he probably wouldn’t have known this college girl.

Although it got off to a quiet start, ‘American Girl’ went on to become pop-rock gospel, and it has been hailed as one of the 100 best guitar songs of all time.  It is a catchy tune that grew into the kind of ubiquitous anthem that every generation will hum at traffic stops and local dive bars, or even just enjoying a quiet evening at home, and it ended up being one of the best rock songs of all time.  It has been called more than a classic rock standard becoming a modern standard for millions of American girls (and boys), developing into part of the American literary canon.

The song, about a girl on a balcony facing a great big world on Highway Four Forty One which Tom knew as it runs 433 miles from Miami in South Florida northwest to the Georgia border north of the Lake City area.  Tom wrote this song a few months after he had left small-town Florida for a music career in Los Angeles and he was living in an apartment near the freeway in Encino, not too far from Leon Russell’s house.  He heard the cars going by, which he thought sounded like the ocean when the waves would crash, and that must have inspired the lyrics.  Tom grew up in the “redneck, hillbilly part” of Gainesville and a lot of this song is autobiographical, as he was the one who was “raised on promises”, and he “couldn’t help thinking that there was a little more to life.”

If you look closely at the lyrics, they aren’t all that dark, as this song is about a girl who has dreams and there is no more powerful message then having a dream that you are able to accomplish something.  This song is presumes as being tragic, as people interpret it being about a girl who jumps to her death, because she is on a balcony, but it says, “if she had to die trying”, that she “Had one little promise she was gonna keep”, and this reminds me of the Robert Frost poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.  Since she had a promise to keep, she probably had miles to go before she would meet her demise.  It is a cold night and she hears the cars which sound like waves and then she has “one desperate moment” where she remembers a guy from her past.  This is a painful memory for her, because they were so close to finding true love where they could have had it all, but it wasn’t to be and he will always remain “so far out of reach”, so I think this is an unrequited love song.  It is not hard to confuse the lyrics and think of them as being about a mixed up American girl, but maybe this chick has it all together, and if she takes it easy, she could make it last all night, which is a very sexy ending for any song.

Well, she was an American girl,
Raised on promises
She couldn’t help thinking that
there was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
And if she had to die
Tryin’, she
Had one little promise she was gonna keep

Oh yeah, alright,
Take it easy, baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl.

Well, it was kind of cold that night,
She stood alone on the balcony
Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by,
Out on four forty one like
Waves crashing on the beach,
And for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God, it’s so painful when something that’s so close
Is still so far out of reach

Oh yeah, alright,
Take it easy, baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl.

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme this week is American music.

saUSAge

I am planning on grilling up some sausage tomorrow, if the rain lets up and if not I can cook them inside.  I usually have sausage for breakfast on weekends to go with my eggs and toast, but I am talking about dinner sausage with fried peppers and roasted potatoes and of course no onions.  I am not talking about having a sausage party where an anthropomorphic, sexually repressed food item longs to escape the confines of the supermarket that they are kept in, to discover what live is like when they are not confined to the shelf.  I have no clue about why Brexit has anything to do with British meats going to Northern Ireland, but everything seems to be getting more and more complicated, and some type of deadline is looming.  Who can resist the smell of a sausage on the grill and since you can’t spell the word sausage without writing USA, it doesn’t get any more American than this!

Last week we had Time To Eat, with the theme of Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Snack, Supper suggested by Paula Light of Light Motifs II.  This week it is a holiday weekend for us folk over here in America and there will be fireworks and I heard that the gas stations are running low of gas, because a lot of people are filling up their tanks preparing for a getaway.  Our theme this week is American music, which is any song played by an American group, so even though ‘American Woman’ sounds like a song you might select, the Guess Who are a Canadian band, so try to find something else and there should be a lot of choices.  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 prompt, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Here are the “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 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.

I am writing about the song ‘American Girl’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  Next week, I will be writing about the Jerry Garcia & David Grisman song ‘There Ain’t No Bugs On Me’.  The upcoming prompts will be:
July 11, 2021 – Bugs, Insects suggested by Amy Braun, ☆ai love music☆ aisasami
July 18, 2021 – Breakup songs suggested by Janis of themomshiediaries
July 25, 2021 – Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of sparksfromacombustiblemind
August 1, 2021 – Alluring, Beautiful, Charming, Graceful, Seductive

Look For Your Dinner

This post is about the traditional song ‘On The Road Again’, not the Willie Nelson classic, or the Bob Dylan song, or the Canned Heat song with the same name.  It was played by the Grateful Dead in 1966 (and before that when they called themselves Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions), then it was dropped until it was reintroduced for a spell in the early 1980s, primarily in acoustic sets.  It was sung by Jerry Garcia in the 60’s with slightly different lyrics from the ones used when Bob Weir sang this in the 80’s.  The lyrics “fat girl” were changed from the original “black girl” which was sung by the Memphis Jug Band an American musical group active from the mid-​1920s to the late 1950s.  There’s often some confusion about another part of this song which is in the chorus, where some people say it is “natural born easy, on the road again”, or “natural born ease, been on the road again”, or “natural born, he’s been on the road again”, or even “natural born easement on the road again”.  I went with the lyrics from the Bob Weir version of this song that say, “Natural born eastman on the road again”.  My research says the Eastman was a hustler who lived by his wits and worked as a pimp.

Most recordings credit Will Shade, of the Memphis Jug Band, as the writer of the song, but others list the song as being traditional.  The Lovin’ Spoonful version of the song is credited to John Sebastian, although it is based on the Memphis Jug Band song.  Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead’s lyricist thought that the band needed a road song, so he wrote ‘Truckin’’ for them.  Since bands travel from place to place to perform, being on the road is a way of life for many groups and I guess being constantly on the road influenced the American road song.  Until recently traveling by car, or bus was the normal way for people to get to their destinations, and the landscape that they passed must have motivated what they wrote about.  Jack Kerouac wrote his On the Road book which became very popular.  Every form of US music whether it be Country, Blues, Gospel, Soul or Rock n Roll has songs about the road.  The road is a metaphor for the journey of life, and it is what keeps us on the right path.

This was a very early American Road song that was around before Robert Johnson’s ‘Crossroads Blues’, Nat ‘King’ Cole’s ‘Route 66’ and Woody Guthrie’s ‘Going down the road feeling Bad’.  Some of my all-time favorite road songs are Roger Miller ‘King Of The Road’, Ray Charles ‘Hit The Road Jack’, The Allman Brothers ‘Ramblin’ Man’, Simon & Garfunkel ‘Homeward Bound’, Creedence Clearwater Revival ‘Lodi’, John Denver ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, Bob Seger ‘Turn the Page’, Bruce Springsteen ‘Thunder Road’, Steve Earle ‘Copperhead Road’, The Pretenders ‘Middle Of The Road’, Bob Dylan ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, Eagles ‘Seven Bridges Road’, Elton John ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ the Beatles ‘Long and Winding Road’ and The Traveling Wilburys ‘End Of The Line’.

Would not my fat girl tell you the reason why?
Fat girls will even do things on the sly
Look for your dinner to be good and hot
She never even put a stew-bone in the pot

Chorus
She’s on the road again, sure as you’re born
Natural born eastman on the road again
She’s on the road again, sure as you’re born

Friend comes by, says he’s looking for his hat
Wants to know where’s your husband’s at
Say I don’t know, he’s on the way to the pen
Come on pretty momma let’s get on the road again

[chorus]

I went to my house, my front door was locked
Went round to the window, found my window was locked
Jumped right back, I shook my head
Big old rounder in my folding bed
Shot through the window, broke the glass
Never seen that little rounder run so fast

[chorus]

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Snack, Supper.

Time To Eat

My name is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt and you can call me anything you want, as long as you don’t call me late for dinner.  Hobbits are humanoid creatures, with smaller bodies and because they have a different metabolism, they are required to consume significantly more food than regular humans.  Their smaller body mass causes them to eat seven meals a day which they do in order to keep their body temperature up, as they have a higher surface area to volume ratio, therefore they lose heat faster, and thus they always seem to be eating.  People eat to satisfy their appetites and this is mostly done between particular time frames.  A meal is what we call a portion of food that is eaten at any time of the day​, although this usually does not include snacks.  When a person says that someone eats like a bird, they mean that this person eats very little, but every time I look at birds, they are either eating, or looking for something to eat.  Birds are always eating because it takes a lot of energy to fly and relative to their body weight, they actually eat a lot.  If someone says that you eat like a horse, they mean that you will eat anything.  If someone says that you eat like a squirrel, that means that you are storing your food for later.

Last week we had Mercilessly Barbaric, with the theme of Brutal, Cruel, Frenzy, Savage, Violent suggested by Melanie.  This week we the theme of Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Snack, Supper suggested by Paula Light of Light Motifs II.  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 prompt, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Here are the “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 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.

I am writing about the song ‘On The Road Again’ which is recognized as being Traditional.  Next week, I will be writing about the Tom Petty song ‘American Girl’.  The upcoming prompts will be:
July 4, 2021 – American music which is any song played by an American group.
July 11, 2021 – Bugs, Insects suggested by Amy Braun, ☆ai love music☆ aisasami
July 18, 2021 – Breakup songs suggested by Janis of themomshiediaries
July 25, 2021 – Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of sparksfromacombustiblemind