Peace, Love and Music

You will hear me talk alot about my friends here. They are the most amazing part of my life and I honestly don't know what I would do without them.  I sit back and I marvel at how incredibly lucky I am that these people want to be a part of my life and tough it out through thick and thin (what does that mean?  Thick and thin?  Thick and thin what?  Waist sizes? anyway...).  But sometimes friendships can cross a line!  They can go too far...in the most amazing direction.  They go from being a friend to being a part of your family. I don't think the words have been invented yet to tell you about one such person, my friend Dave.  We have known each other for 11 years now and he is as important to my family as he is to me.  I can never thank you enough Dave for keeping me (relatively) sane, making me who I am today, always pushing me to be better and ALWAYS making me laugh even when all I want to do is cry!! Thank you for today and for everyday that I have known you!

Ok, the turntable is a-spinning and I am ready to go.  Here are today's 10!

(click on picture to enbiggen)

Totally random folks.  Totally random!

1. The Little Drummer Boy - Harry Simeone Chorale 3:18 (KAPP Records) A little late, I know, but hey!  Whaddyagonnadoo?  This is my Dad and my brother's favorite version of this song and I must admit, there has never been a better recording of it. Aside from the bell and the drum, it is completely accappella. (I think this may the first time I ever noticed that.  Me? Slow? shuttup)

2. Instant Replay - Dan Hartman 3:25 (Blue Sky Records) Um, aren't most of your Christmas mixed tapes in this order too?  I guess we now know what the little drummer boy did when he grew up.  Put on the spandex, blow-dryed his hair up the heavens and became a disco drummer! It could happen.  Dan Hartman's voice is really good and that "scat" solo in the middle of the song matching the saxaphone solo note for note is the hook that made this song so infectious. I am bouncing and doing the Snoopy dance in my seat.  You?

3. One Less Bell To Answer - The 5th Dimension 3:29 (Bell Records) This is another single that my Mom bought for the turntable that ran through her 8-track player (which I still have by the way AND it still works).  I can still remember the day she brought it home.  She was so excited and I was warned it was NOT A TOY!  Like I would ever have played with it when she wasn't around.  Sheeeezzzzz!!  (can you smell the sarcasm through your computer?) Marilyn McCoo has one of the smoothest and richest voices and is soooo perfect for this Bacharach/David gem.

4. It Was A Good Time - Eydie Gorme 2:57 (MGM Records) Didn't I say this was random?  I am not sure how or why we have this song.  All I can tell you is that I loved this song. I think my Uncle Howard may have given this to me. Gotta admit, I still love it.  Eydie's voice is so sexy, just a little coy and a little raspy.  Even while La La La La La-ing!  But I have a question for anyone that knows this song....."We would stay together and share the laughter." Ok, I got that part but what does this mean, "We'd never never, the morning after!"  We'd never never what? 40 years later and I STILL don't know.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm

5. Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) - The Temptations 4:04 (Gordy Records) This song is amazing.  That opening bass line and the Temptations sound with a lyric that is sadly STILL relevant!!!  A perfect record. This 45 was given to me by Aunt Bobbie who had THE most amazing 45 collection!!!  One day she told Steven and I that we could each pick out a 45 and keep it.  I chose this one and Steven picked Nights In White Satin. See? We were cool! (well, musically anyway. well, when we picked those two records.  well, for five minutes in 1971.....................Oh look....a bird) 

6. Clair - Gilbert O'Sullivan 3:00 (MAM Records) WHAT A HAPPY SONG!!!  The instant I heard that whistle in the beginning of the song I smiled!!! An unabashed love song to his daughter that is just beautiful. This was his smash hit follow-up to the slightly less happy, Alone Again Naturally!  From the first time I heard this song to right now, when I hear him say, "Oh, Claire" in that slightly exasperated yet loving way at the end of the song, it always reminds me of Christopher Robin saying, "Silly old bear" to Pooh!  GREAT song.

7. That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be - Carly Simon 4:15 (Elektra Records) Another classic. A perfect song from beginning to end.  In a little over 4 minutes, Carly paints this portrait of a woman who has just been proposed to. The question triggers her deep reflections of what she has witnessed a marriage to be, from her parents to her friends to strangers she sees on the street.  It is haunting and moving AND still managed to be a great pop song. (Take a note kids, THIS is how you write a GREAT song!)  I have always imagined that each verse is her internal monologue before actully answering this poor guy.  Can you imagine how much he must have been sweating, waiting for that answer?  That echo at the end of the song, in my mind, is Carly saying goodbye to who she may have become if she had said NO.

8. What A Fool Believes - The Doobie Brothers 3:41 (Warner Brothers Records) Chair bouncing again. The Doobie Brothers moved into a smooth MOR sound with this song and it works so well with Michael McDonald's 3 1/2 note range, gravely voice. The synth in this song always bothered me and I always thought a really tight fiddle line would have been better, but this was the late 70s.  Not a song that will be the first song thought of when mentioning the Doobies but, still a happy pop song that captured the time. (Did I just slip into pretention there?  Sorry!)

9. I Got A Name - Jim Croce 3:09 (ABC Records) There are just not enough words to tell you how much I love Jim Croce. He was a simple, pure soul who managed to touch everyone with his guitar, his words and his voice.  This song was released after the tragic plane crash that took him from me....DOH!!!  I mean US, yeh, us! I can remember buying both of his albums, studying the pictures, lyrics and each note that he played. My cousin Laura had Harry Chapin and I had Jim.  It was one of the great bonding experiences that we shared and still share.  I can remember being in the living room of the Fisher house in Deer Park, NY, opening the dry sink where the stereo was housed and we would listen to music, all of us.  But then Laura and I would go down to the basement and listen to Harry and Jim on the record player in the hallway.  Remember, Laura????  Great summers!!!

10. Where Do I Go/Be-In (Hare Krishna) - The Happenings 2:35 (Jubilee Records) Ok, this is another one I am not sure where we got it from but I played this to death!!!!!  There is a constant "phhhhhhhhhhh" sound throughout the single.  But it started my love affair with the musical Hair.  Not only its music but its message.  Having my friend Laurie in the movie in 1979 didn't hurt! I guess there will always be a bit of a hippie in me and to be honest, I am proud of that.  I can remember being a little kid and seeing the long haired hippies hanging out and I was wishing I was one of them. Oh man, this is embarrassing but kinda funny.  I remember walking through a park in Brooklyn with Steven and my grandmother and seeing these gorgeous people with long hair and head bands sitting on the grass and as I passed them, they smiled at me and I smiled back. I wanted to make a peace symbol behind my back to them so they would know I was cool even though I looked like a geek.  Well, the index finger on my right hand got caught on my thumb and um.....yeh, only one finger went up.  The wrong one.  Hopefully, they didn't see it.

I am really loving this.  I feel the need to explain something here.  I have hundreds more 45s but these are the ones that we bought as we were growing up.  The others are ones that people have given me over the years from various DJing gigs and just don't mean the same. The randomosity of the songs comes from years of stacking them on the stereo and watching them fall and play.  I still get to do that thanks to my Nan.  I have her console stereo here and from time to time I have friends over and we still stack em and play em. I am also outrageously lucky to have a family, extended and immediate, that loves music, collects music and understands the importance of it all, so the collection is varied and far flung.

Well, that's it for now.  I am going to go and try to figure out the "Simple Easy" directions to setting up a music player here, so you can enjoy this more with me.  See you tomorrow!