Saturday, May 5, 2012

Meaty beaty big and bouncy

Did you know that Glady Knights bandmates Paul, Isaac, and Phil (the Pips..get it?) aren't the originals. The first three guys only lasted one day. Actually Isaac was an original, but he used to be flanked by Terry and Theo. Gladys Knight and the Tits didn't roll off the tongue quite as well.

I guess.


The Pips get some good play in this one, I especially like the "woo hoo" at about 1:10. There would be worse things in life than to be a Pip.

Speaking of music (and I was)...I've actually been enjoying some good old fashioned radio a bit lately. There's a local station that has been playing all the songs in their catalog from A-Z, and as gimmicky as it sounds I've found parts of it to be quite fun. This station has been around forever and has fallen in and out of favor with me over the years. Let's put it this way...if AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and oh, let's say, maybe Van Halen are your favorite bands, then this is the station for you.



But I digress.

So, like I said, I've been enjoying this A-Z thing they've been doing. Seems as though they have a pretty deep "archive". Christ they've been playing songs that begin with the word I for almost 27 days now.

It's a little up and down. You might get "Blitzkreig Bop" by the Ramones (up), followed by "Blue Collar Man" by Styx (not so much)...or "Chest Fever" by the Band (up, obviously) preceeded by "Cherry Pie" by Warrant (no comment).

Some things I've enjoyed...
Being at the red light directly across from Red's....


...listening to "Give it to me" by J. Geils. Actually I had been rocking to this song for a few minutes (volume up, windows up, of course-I'm not a kid anymore). I got to the red light right when the song kicks in (about the 3:00 mark if any of you bother to listen to the clip I'm going to post)...guitar, police whistle, percussion...white guys don't get much groovier.



Anyway, there's this little girl, maybe five or six years old, waiting for her ice cream, and she is dancing. Crazy dancing. National Geographic indigenous tribe dancing. Whatever thing she had going on in that little head of hers, she was dancing in perfect rhythmn to that same song I was listening to.

Awesome.

Then there was the time "Hocus Pocus" by Focus came on. I won't post another video...but I will point you back to a prior blog that I did post the video on...follow the link if you wish

http://pompatusofpete.blogspot.com/2011/10/bite-me.html


I had been talking about this song with a coworker two days prior. Once again, I was in the car. The song came on, I turned it up (loud), called my coworkers cell phone, then held the phone up to my car speakers. For awhile. Like five minutes. Thought he'd get a kick out of it.
The next day he comes up to my desk and says, "Did you try to call me yesterday?"..."Yeah, didn't you get the call?"..."Nope. Just showed as a missed call."

All for naught.

There was the one that stumped me for the first half minute or so. (I'm usually one of those "I can name that tune in three notes" losers. Like it's a special skill or something).

Turned out to be "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. Since it had been so long since I had heard it, I caught myself kind of digging it. Probably like I did this first time I had heard it. By the time it was done I was tired of it, probably like I was after the next thousand times I had heard it after the first time.


Really?

One last song I thought was fun to catch was hearing "And You Bird Can Sing" by the Beatles. Made me remember why they're the best band of all time by playing a song that wasn't one of their hits that you hear time and again on the airwaves
"You say you've seen seven wonders and your bird is green"....

what?

It doesn't matter. I love it.

Time to check out.

Have to pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby and figure out how many mint juleps I can make out of the huge bag of mint I have in my fridge.

Pip.



2 comments:

  1. Early morning laughs over here at the Jones house Peter~!!!!!!!!!! You totally need to check out my husband's 'retro room'. He is a name that tune kind of guy just like you and MUST listen to vinyl for the """"full effect""", or so he says. Enjoy the race today, make sure the girls have perty hats to wear :)
    Kathy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can relate to that vinyl feeling Kathy

    ReplyDelete