Month: August 2016

Leslie’s Compilation

My husband likes doing nice things for me. He made a CD of some of my favorite music for me to listen to as I drive.

Among my mother’s records was the music from Threepenny Opera. As I said, I didn’t connect with the story or the music. That’s mostly true. But there’s a character in that play and movie called Mack the Knife.

There’s a song about Mack the Knife on the record, but it was sung in a quiet, plaintive way. Not jazzed up, with any kind of a beat. Then, in 1959, Bobby Darin recorded this same song but in a totally different way. It was pure jazz and he pulled it off perfectly. I still like listening to it. It’s an odd song about some kind of unpleasant character. That’s as far as I ever got with it. It’s on my CD.

Also, who doesn’t like the beginning music to the original Hawaii-50? The drum beat goes straight into your nervous system the way good music does. Listening to that while watching these huge waves cresting always made me jumpy and giggly. I loved that show, even with Jack Lord and his very weird hair style. Could it instead be called a non-hair style? It’s on the CD also.

Finally, file these two under the title of “Corny.” Yes, I have a wide-ranging interest in music including classical but also themes from movies that have romantic and sexy endings.

To Sir With Love: I adored this movie with noble Sidney Poitier in the lead role as a teacher of a bunch of hoodlum students in a London slum. I like any movie about teachers. The theme to the movie was great.

A Summer Place: A lovely girly movie with strange interrelationships between two pairs of parents and their adolescent children, who fall in love. A satisfying ending. I found out that this movie was taken from a book by the author Sloan Wilson. The movie theme was performed by Percy Faith.

I can’t go on with this listing of songs I like unless I include The Platters. Time-wise, they are more from the very late 50s and early 60s. When they were at their peak I still wasn’t quite a teenager; but I grew to like them as an adult, which is odd.

Great Pretender is one of their best known songs; also Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. But there’s a song on their greatest hits album called My Prayer.

The group was made up of four guys and a young woman. One of the guys was Tony Williams. He had the lead voice and what a voice; he easily moved up and down the scales and did not sing falsetto. You can hear his spectacular voice in most of the songs but he shines in My Prayer. My lady friends in the medical transcription room always called me in if they played that song on the oldies station.

Also, before I move on to the super-groups I have to include The Drifters. So many songs to love–On Broadway, On The Boardwalk, Save The Last Dance For Me. They also recorded Up On The Roof and yes, there’s a story connected with this.

During the years I was working together with Peter we had a workshop that was on the top floor of an old manufacturing company. There was a door, you stepped out, and you could see miles and miles of houses, buildings, and roads. You had to be careful because there was no protection along the sides of the roof. Nothing to keep you from falling. We used to sit out there on nice days and eat our lunches. In lots of ways it was the best years we had…Michael safely taken care of, steady money coming in from the birds.

Finally–and this is weird and can’t be explained–I need to include Bob Dylan. Why am I sticking him at the tail end of this piece on Music I Love? I don’t know. My feelings about Bob Dylan have always been mixed. Sometimes I’ve not liked him because his lyrics don’t make sense and gave me a chill. In many pictures he’s not smiling. Somehow–I think this comes from Joan Baez’s autobiography–I’ve read that he used her and hurt her considerably. Just listen to her song called “Diamonds and Rust.” Girly stuff. But now that I got through that, I have to say that some of his songs really are a part of me. Mainly, this came to me through knowing Mark. Mark had a poetic side and loved all of Dylan’s music. He could sit and talk about the meanings of the words for hours.

Nashville Skyline is my favorite album of Dylan’s. For one thing, he’s smiling in the picture on the album. The songs appeal to me a lot…they are really beautiful. Also hearing Johnny Cash sing with him was great. But my almost favorite album is Blood on the Tracks. The lyrics are perfect and have all different kinds of effects on me. I like to sing with this album as I drive. Also, when Michael was young, we listened to it a lot and Michael really liked it too. He liked “The Jack of Hearts.” I liked “Shelter From the Storm.” But all of the other songs are very, very good. Mark liked to sing “I Threw It All Away,” which I think was on Nashville Skyline. There is a stanza that begins: “I once held mountains, in the palms of my hands…” Mark was made to feel very sexy, listening to that. He was convinced that the mountains in the song were a woman’s breasts.

1.People get ready, there’s a train a comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board.
All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin’
Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.

This is the first stanza to People Get Ready, first recorded by
Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions.

I can’t write about this song without becoming very emotional indeed. Anybody who knows me knows that MLK, Jr. is among my heroes and for some reason I vibrate with soul music like this.

A beautiful soul singing beautiful soul.

Wouldn’t it be nice to think that after all the struggle and strife, a train is coming? And you don’t need a ticket, passport, picture ID, baggage? All you need is faith. Who has that?

2.So people get ready, for the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers coast to coast.
Faith is the key, open the doors and board ’em
There’s hope for all, among those loved the most.

This is at the very heart of music. I might be the only person on the face of this earth to say this, but it’s the same with classical music. Just listen to Beethoven’s Ode To Joy, the final piece of the 9th symphony. It’s just German soul music!!!

3.There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner
Whom would hurt all mankind, just to save his own–believe me now
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place against the kingdom’s throne.

So you can get on this train even if you’re a sinner. The only sinner who can’t get on is the hopeless one.

4.So people get ready, there’s a train a comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board.
All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin’
Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.

After the arrival of the Beatles we were “invaded” by the British. It was an onslaught of talented writers and singers–it was overwhelming.

I liked a lot of these guys. Gerry and The Pacemakers was one of my favorite groups in the mid-sixties. Favorite song of theirs? Ferry Cross the Mersey. I think it’s a beautiful song and one of the reasons I liked it was that it wasn’t about love between and boy and girl. It’s about a different kind of love; it was about loving the place where you grew up.

Now I’m forced to say something about the Rolling Stones. I do not want to irritate anybody. But the Stones had little effect on me. Their music was kind of metallic, it was angry, sounded anti-social. Mick sang as if he wasn’t nice to girls. I know this sounds a little strange but music comes from the heart. I remember one of their first hits–“Let’s Spend The Night Together.” I also remember liking “Paint It Black.” This boy had lost the girl he loved and his “whole world was black.” Of course I could sympathize with this. But as they moved on and kept putting out songs I didn’t pay much attention to them. Yes, there is a story connected with this.

When I was working as a medical transcriber the other women in the room found out that I hated “Brown Sugar” and “Under My Thumb.” My desk was separated from their room; any time either song came on the oldies radio station they’d find a way to get me to come in there. It worked every time.

Also memorable is the Spencer Davis Group and their song “Gimme Some Lovin'” I remember riding around in my friend Iris’ car with that booming from the radio; and I was always a Steve Winwood fan.

I think that we had the very best music and this music gave us an identity. We were separated, very much so, from our parents’ world. And rock and roll is full of sex. During my research for writing this blog I came upon an interesting fact: “rock and roll” derived its name from black slang meaning sex.

I still haven’t finished with the Beatles! Of course not. But I need to move on to the Beach Boys who burst onto the scene at roughly the same time.

This was–to the teenagers living relatively near the Atlantic Ocean (although Pittsburgh was known as the Gateway to the West)–100% new. Well, almost. I remember listening to Jan and Dean slightly before the Beach Boys. Incidentally, I wonder if anybody remembers “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena?” Also “Dead Man’s Curve.” It had meaning for me and for anybody else who had to drive down Commercial Road in the winter!! The boys who liked me must have REALLY liked me to go through this.

But back to the Beach Boys. Brian Wilson sang either in falsetto or had a naturally high-pitched voice. But that voice of his knocked me out. It had some kind of hormonal effect on my nervous system. Again, the mind reels but I do have a story that goes with one of their songs. It was “Little Surfer.”

I think Brian Wilson sang the lead on this. I tried looking it up but I found everything else about this song but not that one fact.

The line I loved–and I still get choked up a little over this–was:
“In my woodie I will take you every where I go.”

Up until I was 16 I had lots of dates and I was fairly popular. But it was just dating. I didn’t merge with any of these boys; I wasn’t a big part of their lives. Then I met a boy and it quickly outgrew “dating.” Just like Brian says in Little Surfer, it seems when I look back that we were always together and he took me “everywhere” he went. We drove around and did errands for his mother, stuff like that.

So many songs. Paul McCartney stated the best rock song of all time was “God Only Knows.” Don’t Worry Baby, Be True To Your School, The Warmth of the Sun, California Girls–I have another favorite. It was Dance, Dance, Dance. Brian did incredible things with his voice in that one; it was mostly in the background but you can hear it.

I have a confession to make. I kept listening to my Greatest Hits CDs from the Beach Boys and getting so nostalgic and teary-eyed that one day I was walking down the street and I just it dropped the disc into a garbage can. The mind will not forget, nor will it leave you alone.

Today I remembered yet another album my mother had. It was the musical score from The King and I.

I have heroes and models in literature and other places. My two female models in real life are Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy. The two are nothing alike, I realize. I look up to them for a standard set for our country in different ways.

But one of my favorite characters from plays and movies is Anna in The King and I. I learned that there really was a woman named Anna Leonowens who journeyed to Siam to be tutor to the king’s many children. Probably her book has little to do what the play and movie became. However, as a woman I admire her. My imagination never stops working. Sometimes I wish it would!

I adore the music from this. My favorite song from the movie and one of my all time favorite show songs is “Hello, Young Lovers.” It’s lyrical, full of passion for love, yet dignified. That’s why I like Anna; she sings it after looking at a picture of her deceased husband, Tom–

When I think of Tom, I think about a night
When the earth smelled of summer, and the sky was streaked with white
And the cool mist of England was sleeping on a hill
I remember this, and I always will.

There are new lovers now on the same silent hill
Looking at the deep blue sea
And I know Tom and I are a part of them all
And they’re all a part of Tom–and me…

When I’m extremely happy I sing this song at the top of my lungs.

So she’s lost her husband, has a little boy to raise, and journeys to Siam to find work in a completely new environment. She’s noble, female rather than feminine, strong, tough but–in her heart she’s always going to remember her husband. What a wonderful mother, woman, and presence in the King’s household.
Of course, the King–played by Yul Brynner–has his opportunities to become larger than life, thanks to Rogers and Hammerstein. But other than Anna and her song about young lovers, there’s the song called “Something Wonderful.” It’s sung by the woman who plays the head wife–yes, this king had a whole harem all to himself. It’s about loving and protecting a man who needs you, even when he’s wrong about something and can be bullying at times. Ah well…different aspects of women’s lives. Yes, just like the other albums, I lay on the floor, reading the back of the album cover, over and over.

My mother had another album that I played, over and over. The cover had a picture of a black man in an undershirt, very big and strong-looking. The name of this album was The Josh White Stories.

This singing was pure soul. It was recorded before the coming of rock and roll. The words to all of the songs were on the back of the album cover.

I never heard singing like this. Like Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops, Josh White sang with a cry in the back of his throat. I was very young and knew nothing about music. So I did the best thing a music-lover does: sit and listen, over and over, for phrasing, nuances, volume. After a while I was an expert on Josh White.

This was the first time I’d heard the song “House of the Rising Sun.” I was completely at sea. I didn’t even know what houses of prostitution were. I was puzzled. “…and it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, and God, I know I’m one.” What was he talking about? Also, this Josh White sang the old, terrible, so-sad song called “One Meat Ball.” Now this song I understood. He also sang “Frankie and Johnny.”

But my favorite–and I think that it may have been recorded by others–was Midnight Special.

Yonder comes Miss Rosie/ How in the world you know?
I can tell her by her apron/and the clothes she wore
Umbrella on her shoulder/piece of paper in her hand
Gonna see the governor/ to turn loose her man…
Let the Midnight Special shine its light on me.
Let the Midnight Special shine its ever-lovin’ light on me.

I was only seven or eight but I had a heart and a soul and I knew what this was about. Being imprisoned, and a train called the Midnight Special went past this awful place every night, with a light on it that shone down.

A Hard Day’s Night

It’s been a hard day’s night
And I’ve been working like a dog
It’s been a hard day’s night
I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
You make me feel all right.

This is one of my favorite Beatles song. It has a special place with me and as usual, a story attached.

After we moved here, because of reasons too miserable to be explained–because I want this series to be fun to read–I was mad at the whole world. I had been working on weekends at a group home for mentally challenged adults. I took the overnight shifts on Friday and Saturday nights. Then a full time position of overnight shifts opened up and I grabbed it. I didn’t have co-workers to deal with; it was just me and four helpless and sometimes violent adults.

So they slept and I performed various administrative jobs, did the laundry, got breakfast ready, stuff like that. But it was nice and quiet. I did this work for four years. Maxine thought I was bonkers for taking on this work. My people were not always continent, diapers had to be changed, also bed sheets. But I was used to doing this stuff. I’d rather do it any day than have to sit in a dumb office with moronic co-workers for eight hours.

Then, after I drove my people to their day care placements, I went home, exhausted. Every morning, four those four years, I sang A Hard Day’s Night on the ride home. It was my theme song in those days. I’m proud of the work I did. There were certain fears, such as one of the residents named Willie and his history of running through the house and punching people. But in those days I was tough in a certain way. I just didn’t care what happened. Willie couldn’t kill me. I was angry then which was the source of my tough attitude. None of the other workers there liked me and I didn’t care.

The movie called A Hard Day’s Night was really good. Fresh, funny, full of music.
When I drove home in the mornings exhausted I’d think that John Lennon and Paul McCartney really understood me.

There were a couple of things that crossed my mind while thinking about the Beatles.

The night that the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan show we all watched. I was going crazy, my sister didn’t know what to make of it, and mother kept saying: Oh, isn’t this ridiculous. Look at their hair, etc., etc. This is something that we all accepted, that our parents would think the Beatles were ridiculous. They–our parents–were on another planet.

One time I think I was in our basement, playing the piano, when my mother said: “I just read an interesting article in a magazine. It has a quote about Leonard Bernstein saying that he just LOVED the Beatles, their harmonies, the way they played their instruments. Well if Leonard Bernstein likes them, I like them too. Let’s just say that I don’t think they’re ridiculous anymore.”

I didn’t say anything. What was there to say without sounding rude or bursting into laughter? I was close to laughing at this but I kept quiet. It gave me something to think about. Everybody knows that ever since I was 10, Leonard Bernstein was my hero. Did I like the Beatles even more now because of him?

Also; when I was 14 and a little older, I had a super group of friends. They were all smart, very nice to each other, good to have around when you felt bad about something. I don’t think anybody will mind if I say this. It was more than 50 years ago. Pamela Cohen was a part of the group and there was something about her that made me feel uneasy at first. She was a super friend; but she was different. I had some basic information about gay people but not a lot. It turned out that Pam was gay but we didn’t use that word then. Come to think of it, I can’t remember what words we used. The important part was that she was a Lesbian, we all came to accept it, and nobody got upset about it. For that time, it was unusual. Furthermore, Rita Shore was a part of our group and it was an open subject that Pam was in love with her. And nobody got upset or even questioned it. What did that have to do with the Beatles?

It could have been the same night of the sleepover party when this happened..but I have a clear image of Pam and Rita sitting on my piano bench, holding hands. We had If I Fell playing on the record player and when these words came “…and I know that love is more than just holding hands…” Rita and Pam raised their joined hands. It wasn’t anything related to protesting anything. It was just that they knew that love is more than just holding hands.

The Godfather of Soul

You can’t write about rock music without at least mentioning James Brown. I never saw him performing in person but I had listened to him sing and saw him on television–I think. But I just watched and listened to him doing Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag.

I never knew what the words to this song meant. Who is “Papa” and what does “got a brand new bag” mean? I just looked up the lyrics and they are pure soul-talking in a dialect I can’t recognize. It’s about dancing some of the new dances, that’s all I can make out. But just take a look at you tube and watch James Brown perform. Gorgeous clothes, the kind white guys never wear–shoes that look Italian, very sleek and shiny. His dancing–impeccable.

However, there was also “I Feel Good.” Now we’re cooking, as my grandmother used to say. They used it in the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams making up these crazy words about dinosaurs and he thinks he’s alone but the boss comes along…

As a part of our private family mythology, the song has a place. Everything can be quiet and ordinary and suddenly Peter will turn on his heel, do some kind of crazy dance steps and sing, really loud: “I FEEEEEL GOOD! I KNEW THAT I WOULD! I FEEEEEL GOOD! I KNEW THAT I WOULD! SO GOOD–SO GOOD–I’VE GOT YOU!!!! I FEEEEEL NICE! SUGAR AND SPICE!!! I FEEEEEL NICE!! SUGAR AND SPICE!! SO NICE–SO NICE I’VE GOT YOU…”

Then Michael and I would fall apart, laughing. Peter had a good sense of timing in doing this little singing act at exactly the right time.

It is considered by the music community that James Brown was actually the founder of funk music.