MUSICAL MEMORIES

SONGS THAT BRING ME BACK TO A PARTICULAR TIME AND PLACE.......

1. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" by Nelson Eddy. This one goes way back to the 1950s. It's a red 45 RPM vinyl record in our family collection. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! along the highway, Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! the land is free." It's a soldier song about "Virginians and Kentucks." My older brother and I are marching to it all through the house--stomp, stomp, stomp is more like it. Mom is about to thump, thump, thump us.

2. Elvis's "Can't Help Fallin' In Love," dancing at Teentown, 1961, with a 7th grade classmate, thinking I must be in love with him. "Wise men say, only fools rush in...." Boy, ain't that the truth!?

3. "Sleep Kentucky Babe." We're singing this in 8th grade jr. high vocal music. It starts out, "Skeeters are a hummin' on the honeysuckle vine. Sleep Kentucky Babe." Except we altos on the east side of the room are changing the words around. "Babies are a suckin' on their little mama's breast. Suck Kentucky Babe." For some reason, we think this is totally hilarious. The teacher, Mrs. Cole, can't quite make out what we are saying or why we are giggling, but she's giving us dirty looks.

4. "Togetherness" is a mediocre Frankie Avalon hit during my jr. high days. The record is owned by my neighbor pal, Nancy Sue. We're in her bedroom listening to it, then pantomiming, "Two hearts are better than one heart, four lips are better than two. Come close to me, let's kiss and see what togetherness can do." We are laughing ourselves silly, especially when we get to the kissing part.

5. "Joy to the World," (not the Christmas carol) by Three Dog Night, at the Pizza Palace in Pittsburg during my college days, probably 1969 or '70. Two tables of about a dozen pals, wailing out as loudly as we can, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine...." I'm sitting on the edge of the chairback, leading the chorus. The beer is flowing. (As I'm writing this blog, guess what song is playing on my satellite dish rock radio station? You guessed it!)

6. Everything on the Woodstock album. It's a 3-record set that cost me a bundle by 1971's standards but worthy every penny. I'm in my bedroom at Siena House in Pittsburg, a senior in college, all alone, lying down, looking at ethereal images cast on the dark green walls by a black light. "Wooden Ships," sung by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, is one of my favorites. "Wooden ships on the water. Very free and easy." The melody is very soothing but the lyrics are strange....it's actually about the aftermath of a nuclear war.

7. "I Can See Clearly Now," by Johnny Nash, and Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman," 1971, Dallas, Texas. Carpooling on North Dallas Freeway with some apartment complex neighbors to our downtown jobs, I come to the realization that I hate city life. This woman can clearly see she wants to get back to small town Kansas, where "....It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day."

8. "Havin' My Baby," by Paul Anka. It's 1975, I'm driving east back to Eureka on Highway 54, when this song comes on my car radio, and I immediately turn it off. "I HATE this song!" I groan aloud to no one but me. The lyrics are just too sappy and male chauvinistic. Beyond description but here are a few: "Whoa the seed inside ya, Baby, do you feel it growin'?" Well, I grow sick just thinking about this song.

9. "If," by Bread, and "Baker Street," by Gerry Rafferty. It's 1978 and Big Bore and I are canoodling in my garage apartment in Eureka. He is a 23-year-old wild buck who sort of reminds me of my favorite actor at the time, Jeff Bridges. "....then one by one, the stars will all go out, and you and I will simply fly away." Sigh.

10. "She Blinded Me With Science," by Thomas Dolby, and "Walk Like an Egyptian," by The Bangles. It's the mid 1980s and I'm cruising down Broadway, the main drag in Pittsburg, with my teen-aged niece and nephew. The stereo is turned up full blast and we are singing along and "sit dancing." The Honda is shaking like an earthquake. "Good heavens, Mrs. Sakamoto! You're beautiful!"