September 15, 2006

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  Internet Island Topic Post #18.00: “The Songs of Our Lives”

  
  

  The Fifites

  
  

  It all started with Baptist hymns, Elvis Presley and country music. I heard the first actual song in the soundtrack of my life at my mother’s knee. She would sing me a lullaby: “Jesus Wants You For A Sunbeam”. I don’t think I ever heard a recorded version of this song, if in fact it was an actual lullaby and not something my mother made up. Memory is dusty at times, but that was the very first track of the album of my life. My family had a hymnal which we used when singing around the kitchen table on Saturday nights. Hymns like “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”, “He Lives” (which I soloed at age 13 in Church) and “The Old Rugged Cross” were familiar to me when I was very young, and I can still sing a lot of the hymns which we sang in Church when I was a youngster.

  
  

  My mother was a great fan of country and western music, and the radio was always tuned to the country station. (Which in the late 50s was KFWB AM, now a news station) I still maintain an early memory of hearing Frankie Laine’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky” on the radio. My mother used to tell us she ran away from home at 16 and joined Ernie Tubb’s band, sometimes “ghost singing” for the singer on the radio when he was too drunk to perform. She used to sing old Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams songs around the house. I can still hear her singing Rodger’s “Muleskinner Blues”, and “I’m in the Jailhouse Now” and Williams songs such as “Kawliga, the Wooden Indian” while cleaning the house. My first introduction to music was in this way. The “modern” late 50s C&W songs were on the radio, and the old classics were sung by my mother around the house. Two songs by Hank Williams which would have to be included in my life’s soundtrack are “Lovesick Blues” and “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry.” My mother was also a huge fan of Elvis Presley, so we got our shot of rock and roll during this time as well. Mom would sing songs like “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Don’t Be Cruel” and we watched all the King’s movies when they showed up on TV. A lot of the early films would air on the Million Dollar Movie, which would show them once each night and multiple times on weekends. My brother and I would watch the films over and over, and learn all the words to the songs and all Elvis’ moves. We would intrerpret the music we listened to in our “performances” for our parents. Even though there was a television in our living room, we spent a lot of time “performing”. We were a real “throwback” family to the times when families had nothing to do in the evenings except entertain each other.

  
  

  The Sixties

  
  

  In 1964 the Beatles “invaded” America, and us kids began urging my parents to play rock and roll stations on the radio, like KHJ and KRLA. I particularly liked the song “Help”, and enjoyed the subsequent movie made by Richard Lester, which starred the Beatles. My brother, sister, and I would listen to the song whenever it showed up on radio, and meticulously copy the lyrics so we could sing it for our parents during our “performances”. My brother and I became “The Nyiri Nuts” and we would perform Beatles songs for our elementary school classes. We also performed novelty songs like Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash”. The soundtrack of my life included a lot of old standards since my father watched a lot of the 40s bandleader’s shows on television. Early memories are of Nat King Cole, the Dorsey Brothers, Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney. We really had quite a mix of music at our disposal while growing up, but we didn’t own a record player. We had one “album”, a cast album for the musical “Flower Drum Song” and I still remember looking over the jacket with awe, wondering what the music sounded like. When I was in fifth grade, my sister and I were preparing to sing “I Think We’re Alone Now” an early hit by Tommy James and the Shondells, for a box social at school, but we weren’t allowed, because the administration thought the song had “suggestive lyrics”. (It’s the song I’ve chosen as my jukebox selection this week.)

  
  

  By the time I got to high school, in 1968, my mother had purchased a small stereo record player, one of those plastic jobs where the top unfolded and became the two speakers. The player was too small for albums, but they played hanging over the sides of the machine. Mom was into Joe Cocker. “Delta Lady” became one of my all time favorite songs. I began buying albums with some of my allowance, and I worked for the first time between my junior and senior year. Creedence Clearwater Revival was my favorite group, but my favorite album during this time was “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor. I also had records by Ray Stevens, who sang “Everything is Beautiful” as well as novelty songs like “Guitarzan”, and Gordon Lightfoot, whose “If You Could Read My Mind” still resonates with me. Country music was still special to me as well. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings were favorites. My all time favorite Jennings song, “The Only Daddy That Would Walk the Line” plays as the jukebox selection on my main website www.allthingsmike.com.

  
  

  Throughout my middle school and high school years, bubblegum music was also a big draw in our household. The Foundations sang “Build Me Up Buttercup”. The 1910 Fruitgum Company sang “Indian Giver” (which has been a jukebox song on this blog). Edison Lighthouse sang “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”. In subsequent years of record collecting, I was able to collect these songs and more on my soundtrack in their original album form. I didn’t collect singles, so I also got quite an eclectic mix of other music by some of these “one hit wonders”. Besides Creedence, another favorite band when I was in high school was The Guess Who. “Bus Rider”, “Albert Flasher”, “American Woman”, “No Time”, “No Sugar Tonight”. The list of favorite songs by this band is endless. I think I have at least 15 Guess Who albums in my collection. Right before graduation from high school, I bought a professional Wollensack 3M Eight Track Recorder and began to make my own mix tapes, with me as disc jockey. A lot of these were subsequently stolen from my car, but at one time I had made over 30 two hour tape mixes from my record collection. The Beach Boys’ “Surf’s Up”, The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper” and “Abbey Road”, were favored albums that added songs to the soundtrack of my life. I still love early Rod Stewart songs like “Maggie May”.

  
  

  The Seventies

  
  

  After graduation in 1971, I went to college at USC, and began to attend the “music scene” in Southern California. I’ve written about my forays into Hollywood, hanging out at clubs like the Starwood and the Whiskey a Go Go. My first concert was the Passion Play tour by Jethro Tull at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. I attended with an old high school friend who was going to Cal State L.A. at the time. Jon and I were both ‘music freaks’ and we would not only attend concerts together, but along with a few other friends, we started to make weekly pilgrimages to Tower Records on the Sunset Strip each Friday night, buying dozens of albums by new and established artists. I read Rolling Stone’s and Creem’s record reviews, and we would simply return any albums that didn’t get our feet moving. I discovered my favorite band of the early 70s, Queen, in this manner, as well as other heavier fare like Montrose, Kiss, and Aerosmith. Queen became the band most often heard on my soundtrack, and I made many mix tapes with Queen songs in abundance for my 8 track and cassette players. “Somebody to Love”, “Brighton Rock”, and “Tie Your Mother Down” are three Queen songs that have to be included in the soundtrack of my life. Other bands which stood out in the early to mid 70s are Cheap Trick and Sparks. I have all their early albums, on vinyl, and have played “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us” as a jukebox song here on the blog.

  
  

  Don McLean’s “American Pie” from 71, is at the top of the chart on my soundtrack, because the song introduced me to Buddy Holly, who had perished in a plane crash in 1959, the subject of McLean’s song. I began to collect Buddy Holly records soon after, and his music has inspired me for years. Even though Holly died at age 23, he was a prolific songwriter. “Modern Don Juan”, “That’ll Be the Day”, “Peggy Sue”, “Rave On”, and dozens more Holly songs are always on my mind and have been played hundreds of times in my personal soundtrack.

  
  

  When I moved to the South Bay in 1974, Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive” album was on nearly everybody’s turntable. “Do You Feel Like I Do” is my favorite song from that album. Heart’s first album was also quite popular, with the song “Magic Man” gaining special favor. Other bands in the mid 70s which gave my soundtrack some added bite were 10cc and The Outlaws. A friend from work turned me on to psychedlic  bands such as Pink Floyd. While Pink Floyd songs cannot be truly placed on the soundtrack of my life, during my druggie period in the 70s, they were a favored band, and I bought all their albums. “Set Your Controls For the Heart of the Sun” and the Ummagumma album were favorites on my soundtrack at that time.

  
  

  Late in 1977, when the disco craze was sweeping America, the songs on my soundtrack were “Luchenbach Texas” by Walon Jennings, and “Blue Eyes Cryin’ In the Rain” by Willie Nelson. My friend Tom and I never missed a Willie or Waylon concert. I never warmed to the disco beat, but I wholeheartedly immersed myself in my traditional country music at this time. One of my friends was a country western disc jockey during the late 70s.

  
  

  The artists in the Stiff Records stable, from England, were also at the top of my personal charts in the late 70s. I discovered Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, who toured as the group “Rockpile” when they opened for Elvis Costello at Hollywood High. The rockabilly beats and pop sensibilities of the group, with both Nick and Dave trading on vocals and lead guitar work, got my heart pumping during this time of my life. I played the grooves out of “Deborah” off the first Edmunds record I bought, “Tracks on Wax 4″.

  
  

  A couple of other artists not widely known who always will have a spot on my soundtrack are Carolyn Mas and Carlene Carter. (who was married to Nick Lowe for a time.)

  
  

  The Eighties

  
  

  The CD arrived during this decade, and I almost stopped  buying albums, not sure of what was going to happen to vinyl, and not sure of how long the new format was going to last. Home video had arrived by 1981, and instead of buying record albums with my paycheck every week, I was buying the new videodiscs, and uisng my new video tape recorders to record old movies from late night television. I didn’t get “into” MTV, the new video music channel on cable,  but some of the albums I did buy and some of the songs on the soundtrack of my life at this point were featured on the channel, like Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”. I still gobbled up anything by Nick and Dave, and Queen was still making records. New bands which added songs to my personal soundtrack were the Go Gos and the Waitresses. “No Guilt” by the Waitresses is still high on my soundtrack’s chart, and I’ve played it as a jukebox selection here on the blog. I also got into X and Cyndi Lauper during this time.

  
  

  John Fogerty, the former lead singer for Creedence Clearwater, my first favorite band, released “Centerfield” in the early 80s, and that song as well as the complete album charted pretty high on my soundtrack. My friend Tom introduced me to jazz and blues artists I had not previously known, and we attended at least four of the annual Blues Concerts in Long Beach, sponsored by the local jazz radio station. My favorite blues song is “I’m a Man” by Muddy Waters.

  
  

  
  Stay tuned for Part Two, which encompasses the late 80s, 90s, and Aughts. Music is a great part of my life, and it’s very difficult to highlight only a few songs or artists from the vast repetoire which has made up the soundtrack of my life. I haven’t even mentioned my love of musical comedy, and my show tunes collection. Before “Grease” was a hit movie, it was a musical comedy, and I had the cast album. Also “Camelot”, “Cabaret”, “Finian’s Rainbow”, “Oklahoma”, and the made for record “Jesus Christ Superstar” which later became a movie and a play. “Fie On Goodness”, a romp from Camelot, is probably the highest ranking musical comedy song to be on my soundtrack, and it wasn’t even included in teh movie of Camelot from 1965.

  
  

  The hits on the soundtrack of my life keep on coming!

  • 2:50 pm
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