Tryin' To Find The Light

This has been a crappy day!  Sorry folks, no other way to say it and hey, I am only human!  Even poor Dave couldn't completely snap me out of it this time.  THERE'S a first!  So, I am hoping the music will do the trick!

I do have some good news though.  Starting with yesterday's post, I have figured out the glitches with posting clips of the songs on here.  It is not the best way in the world for you to have to do this but I am working on that! So, here is what I have for you so far.  I will post a link underneath the picture of the singles for the day.  Click on it and it will take you away from this page and bring you to my music page.  On MY page, unlike here, you will be able to re-open the blog in a new window by clicking the appropriate link (don't worry, you can't miss it!).  YAY! Now, you will have to click the play button as each clip ends to get to the next one, they won't play one after the other as promised in the easy to follow directions.  Fear not!  I am working on creating a Jukebox that will play each song consecutively without you having to move your mouse.  With that said........

Here is today's 10! (oh, you can thank Dave for the suggestion of using a new background)

(Click here to hear clips from today's 10)

1. Come Saturday Morning - The Sandpipers 2:57 (A&M Records) I have been waiting for this one to come up!!!!!  Another PTD single but, OH MYGOD, how I love this song.  I think Nan and Uncle Bob gave us this one too!  SOOOOOOOO many scratches!  But those guitars and horns right in the beginning!! Heaven. Swaying to the mellow sounds.  Absolute milktoast male vocals about looking forward to Saturday Morning!  Asking the age old question..."Will Saturday last more than half of the day? EERRCH.....HUH?
Eh, how cares.  Such amazingly happy memories of this song. So simple and innocent!

2. Delta Dawn - Helen Reddy 3:08 (Capitol Records) "What's that flower you have on?" Man, after listening to this again after a million years, I realize it is just a great big jam session!  Yes, it is a story song.  Yes, it is amazingly arranged and produced and Helen never sounded better.  However, we get the story and the drama out of the way in the first minute-thirty.  After that, it is modulation (YAY key changes) after modulation. But my Lawd, she really threw down, chorus after chorus!  Standin' in the middle of town lookin' for a man with dark hair.  But who hasn't done that? By the way, my favorite line, and the one that took me FOREVER to figure out is..."then a man of low-degree stood by your side"!  Low-degree?  Hmmmmm

3. Ticket To Ride - Carpenters 3:37 (A&M Forget Me Nots Records)  Another Carpenters re-issue!  YAY!!  Karen never lets me down when I am feeling blue!  This is a very early re-issue of Karen and Richards very first single. it peaked at number 54 on the Billboard charts. Richard heard the Beatles version on an oldies station one day in 1969 (an oldie in 1969?) and had a perfect reworking of the song for Karen and the first album, "Offering" (later repackaged and retitled "Ticket To Ride") What makes this re-issue so special to fans like me is that it is a bastardized version of the album's recording not a re-issue of the actual single.  The original single of this song was completely different and so much simpler.  Either version did, completely, establish what would become the Carpenter sound and led them to their second single....(They Long To Be) Close To You. Ahhhhh, the best voice ever!

4.  You're So Vain - Carly Simon 4:25 (Elektra Records) How do you even talk about this song? It will only end up being so much verbal diarrhea extoling the virtues of how AMAZING it is!!!  Carly Simon has and continues to be one of the greatest singer/songwriters EVER!  Ok, now I am going to start playing the record.  Get ready for the scratches folks.....Ahhhhhhh! gurggling bass line..."Son of a gun"  "Gavot" was the word that I could never figure out, just in case anyone is keeping track.  Now that I know it, I am still not sure what it means other than "preen" "prance".  Poor Mick!  LOVE the growl on "several".....years, that is.  Gotta admit that "lear jet" was a bit hard to figure out as a child of 6 years old. 
5. Mornin' Beautiful - Tony Orlando & Dawn 3:03 (Elektra Records) History lesson.  It is 1975.  Bell Records, which Tony Orlando helped create, has been bought out by Clive Davis and re-named Arista. One of the few existing names that Clive kept was Barry Manilow (my personal hero).  Tony packed up the girls and went to Elektra and this was their first single in their new home. He has such a great voice.  Deep, rich and pitch perfect. This is a very happy, boppy song but it introduces the mid-seventies funk and sexual freedom in pop songs.  I am not sure but I think this single happened just as their tv variety show was coming to an end.  I seem to remember seeing them perform it on the show and thinking, "WOW I have this single!"  Proof positive that I was a geek!

6.  Patches - Clarence Carter 2:48 (Atlantic Records) Another song I have been waiting to come up!  Another summer vacation song.  And another song that my amazing Mom took the time to explain to us. Thinking back, the reason that she probably explained this one to us was because I was making fun of the way Clarence "spoke" in the middle of the song and I did it to make Steven laugh.  This song has a very important message and was not something to laugh at.  It was moments like this that made me realize that not everyone lived in the "prefect" world that Steven and I did.    WOW!  Sorry.  Got caught up.  Shit, this song makes me cry!  A father admitting to his young son that he had done everything he could and on his death bed tells him that now it was his turn to pull the family through.  Ok.....moving on.

7. Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree  - Dawn - Featuring Tony Orlando 3:19 (Bell Records) Oh God, oh God I am so confused!  I always thought this song was about the men and women coming home from Vietnam.  If their spouses or partners still wanted to continue the relationships that were started before they went away, they would Tie A Yellow Ribbon....I had everything ready to write here like  how we did, indeed, tie a yellow gingam ribbon around the old oak tree on Battery Avenue and how my Mom explained this song to us, until tonight! "I'm really still in prison" does this mean that he did something bad to some guy in Indiana (see yesterday's post) or is this about POWs? I want to believe it is a song about the men and women that have served our country.  Ok, I have done too much thinking about this song. Great song but I am confused.  Oh man, bring on the next song.........

8. Disco Duck (Part I) - Rick Dees And His Cast Of Idiots 3:15 (RSO Records) "waaa waa waa waaa" Rick Dees, DJ extraordinaire. The production was  great and it was nice to have D.Duck brought into the late 70s.  Other than that...I got nothing. Too busy chair dancing.

9. Watching Scortty Grow - Bobby Goldsboro - 2:28 (United Artists Records) Oh man....why are these the songs for tonight?????  I don't even know what to say to this.  Amazing summer memories.  "Me and God are watching Scotty grow!" This song also makes me think about my buddy Christopher and his son Logan!
10. The Way Of Love - Cher 2:30 (Kapp Records) This is another one of my Mom's singles that she bought for her new stereo. This is Cher at her best and Sonny at his most dramatic (in terms of the production I mean)!  I love that key change and the drama of the orchestra the second time through.
Well, I will go edit the songs down so you can hear them.  As for some words of wisdom....I got nuthin'.  Go tell the people you trust and love that you love them and I will see you tomorrow.  I will be in a better mood, I promise.  G.