I had to take Andrew for an EMG last week. Knowing what to expect because of the EMG I recently had, I wondered how he’d do.
I was surprised at just how well he did. When the shock happened, he said it tickled. He wasn’t scared or anything. He was thrilled when they told him he could pick a toy at the end of the visit.
He decided on a homemade wooded truck.
I mentioned last week that Ella got to read in front of her class. They posted a picture of it on the class page.
We’ve been fluctuating between chilly and mild temperatures here. The other day it was like 60 degrees. The kids loved being outside. Andrew was just running around and being silly.
Ella was excited to be out riding her bike.
Both kids have been all about the Xbox since I put it in our room. We do have a couple games for younger kids, but they always want to play my race game or golf game.
Sam was relaxing in bed one night. She caught a great cameo of Andrew and me golfing.
They had a spirit week at Ella’s school. Monday was “wear green” day. Ella found a cool St. Patrick’s Day dress. Little did she know, two other classmates had the same dress! She loved every minute of that
Today, at dance class, she lost her first tooth. So tonight I get to play Tooth Fairy. I asked AI to make me the Tooth Fairy and the results were … Scary.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
As you might remember, I started this last May on my birthday. I have tried to work a week or two ahead on this feature. One thing I have noticed as we move into the late 2010’s and 2020’s is that there are not that many songs that mean anything to me. No life event connects with them. There are only a few I may like. That being said, it is very possible that I will combine two or three years into one week. I also have a feeling that there may be upcoming years where I don’t pick any songs. If that happens, the feature will wrap sooner than expected, which may be a good thing.
2014 was actually a good year of music for me. I turned 44 that year. I had a new career in sleep and was still able to do a few hours on the radio. Many of the songs from this year were ones I played on the air …
It didn’t mean much to me in 2014, but Let It Go by Idina Menzel sure does today. It is the first song I danced to with my daughter at our first Daddy/Daughter Dance. That may have been the only song we danced to that first year, but I will never forget it. It is from her favorite movie, Frozen.
“Kids don’t want to stand out all the time, they want to fit in,” Menzel said regarding this song. “It’s about finding that thing that makes you different that’s going to make you special and extraordinary.”
Let It Go won for Best Song at the Oscars in the 2014 ceremony. It also earned an entry in the 2016 Guinness World Records book for “Most Languages Featured on a Single.” It was recorded in 42 different languages for Frozen‘s foreign releases.
Let It Go
Paramore was primarily known for their rock music. Ain’t It Fun is a very different sound for them. It was more pop/dance than rock. (From songfacts) Bassist Jeremy Davis told The Guardian that the band had their largely teenage fan base in mind. “After we started writing weird stuff like ‘Ain’t It Fun,’ we got nervous,” he said. “But that was a comfort. We’ve grown and we don’t like the same music we liked, so why would [our fans] not? That idea kept us pushing ourselves.”
Songfacts also says, “This upbeat track mixes gospel, soul and some Prince-style R&B. Hayley Williams told The Sun: “Taylor (York) and I came up with the melody and I thought about Prince, too. Then it got layered with more groove and funk and all the cool elements. The next thing I know there’s a gospel choir in the studio and we have that track. It’s been so liberating to write this record.”
The xylophone in the song really helped the song to stand out on the air. That’s what I remember most about the first time I played it. “Well, that’s certainly different,” I thought.
The song is catchy. I don’t know that I’d call it an earworm, but you get hooked right from the beginning.
Ain’t It Fun
The next song is one that I have written about before. I chose it in the 2021 Song Draft that Hanspostcard hosted. It is one of those songs that I love to listen to. Here is the blog I wrote for the Song Draft:
Who would have imagined that in 2014 a Cole Porter song would be popular? Thanks to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Porter’s Anything Goes was very popular … again.
The recording of the song took place over a year in New York City. Bennett’s quartet was present, as well as other musicians. It received mostly positive reviews. The Chicago Tribune said that it found Gaga to be in “good voice” and Bennett in “classic form”. V Magazine called the song a “fresh take” on the original. MTV News said “Gaga is clearly having a blast, doing her best Broadway belting with tons of energy and enthusiasm”
On the Billboard Jazz Digital Songs chart, the track debuted at the top, becoming Gaga’s second entry on that chart, following “The Lady is a Tramp”. The song was Bennett’s 15th entry on the Jazz Digital Songs chart, and his third number-one single. “Anything Goes” sold 16,000 digital downloads in the US during the week of its release.
Lady Gaga’s voice is one that could easily sing the American Song Book. The true sound of her voice is lost on current music. And how could you not like Tony Bennett?
Anything Goes
One song that really stands out to me from 2014 is Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. It was one that many brides I DJ’d for picked as their first dance. It’s a great choice.
The first time I heard it, it reminded me a bit of Into the Mystic by Van Morrison. Little did I know that Ed says Van Morrison heavily influenced this song. He told songfacts:
“No one’s really channeled Van Morrison for a long time. Everyone always channels, Michael Jackson and the Beatles and Bob Dylan, and I feel like Van Morrison is a key figure in the music that I make.”
The video features Sheeran and his partner Brittany Cherry ballroom dancing and was shot all at once in 16 mm film. “I wanted the video to be a little different, so I opted for ballroom dancing,” he explained when the video was released in October 2014. “I had lessons for five hours a day when I was on my US tour last month.”
Songfacts says: With electronic music ruling the airwaves, this was one of the few hit songs of its time with a guitar solo (played by Chris Leonard), which is near the end of the song in place of a bridge. Running 4:41, it was also very long by 2014 hit song standards, although this extra time makes the song more appealing as a first dance wedding number.
Thinking Out Loud
When Shake It Off hit the radio, it drove me crazy. At that time, Taylor Swift was everywhere. There was a ton of publicity leading up to her 1989 album. This was the lead single.
This song IS an earworm. Even if I switched stations or turned down the monitors in the studio, I still found that it would run through my head. Gee, I don’t know why? The phrase “shake it off” shows up 36 times in this song, mostly in the chorus. “Shake” appears 70 times. URGH!
Songfacts says: The song originated from Swift learning to overcome her fear of not being accepted. “I think it kind of takes not caring what people think about you a step further to kind of locking the fact that people don’t get you,” she explained to BBC Radio 1’s Breakfast Show. “Kind of taking pride in the fact that you know you are and it honestly doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t want to understand you. We go through these scenarios in so many different phrases of our lives, no matter what it is.”
“I’ve had to learn a pretty tough lesson in the past couple years that people can say whatever they want about at any time, and we cannot control that,” said Swift. “The only thing we can control is our reaction to that… You can either let it get to you… [or] you just shake it off.”
Shake It Off
Another big song that worked well as school dances was Shut Up and Dance by Walk The Moon. I used to love watching folks jumping around and dancing to it. It was always great to hear them shout the chorus as it played.
Vocalist Nicholas Petricca told American Songwriter magazine the story of the song:
“Well, (Guitarist) Eli Maiman and I were working on something that’s now the verse. And it had this great feeling that we couldn’t stop playing over and over. We didn’t have a chorus and we didn’t have a subject or a lyric.”
“So over the next weekend, I went to this awesome party they have at The Echo in Echo Park, Los Angeles, called Funky Soul Saturday. The story of ‘Shut Up and Dance’ is based on a true story of hanging out there with my friends… this girl actually told me to shut up and dance with her. We took it back to the studio and it spun out very quickly after that.”
It was only later that Petricca realized he could use the girl’s comment as a song lyric. “At the time, I was in my head and not with it,” he said. “She’s one of my best friends and pulled me out into the moment, and that really became the subject of the song. Encouraging people to let go of whatever it is that’s bothering you and get into your body and out of your head. Coming home and working on the song I thought, this is it. This is totally it.”
Shut Up and Dance
OneRepublic makes a second appearance on the list with an amazing song – I Lived.
Songfacts says:
While opening for U2 in the summer of 2012, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder observed the effect of Bono’s lyrics on the Irish band’s fans, as they sung along to their songs. “These lyrics are so from his gut and so like honest, but poetic,” Tedder told Radio.com. “They’re not trying to be ambiguous or trying to be cool.”
Inspired, Tedder decided that with the Native he was going to write lyrics people could relate to, which meant he would have to share a little bit of himself. Accordingly, nothing on the album is a work of fiction. This song, for instance is a love letter to the singer’s son, Copeland Cruz, who was born in 2010.
How often are we told to live life to its fullest? The chorus is an example of doing just that:
I, I did it all I, I did it all I owned every second that this world could give I saw so many places The things that I did Yeah, with every broken bone I swear I lived
The song’s music video pays tribute to teenage fan, Bryan Warnecke, and his struggles living with cystic fibrosis. The clip ends with Tedder driving Warnecke to a concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado to see OneReublic perform.
I Lived
Another song that jumped out of the radio at listeners was Honey, I’m Good by Andy Grammer. The song almost sounded out of place on Adult Contemporary stations because of its “country” sound. Grammer even went as far as to call the song, “a fun hoedown!”
The song’s music video features a montage of around one hundred real-life couples that have been together from several months to over 70 years. Grammer said, “My manager and I were on the phone talking about an idea for the video. We wanted to press home the concept that this isn’t a song about a guy who’s cheating. This is about a guy who is being true. So we started calling all of our friends and family that we knew had been married for a long time and asked them to lip sync the song.”
“They all started sending videos in and we started asking by word of mouth if people knew a couple who’d been married a long time. It was so fun getting all our friends and family involved that we decided to just put it up on social media and ask the fans to be part of the video too. We asked them to get their parents and grandparents to be in it also.”
Honey I’m Good
Finally, another song that just clicked with the school dance crowds, as well as adult crowds. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars struck gold with Uptown Funk.
The intro reminds me of the intro to Smoke on the Water. As it progresses, you get another instrument, then another, etc… Songfacts explains:
This intro sets the stage for the rest of the song, introducing the hooky “doh doh doh” vocal and the clapping drum sound (made with a Linn drum machine) that show up throughout the song. Before the intro ends, various other key instruments in the song appear: bass, snare drums, cheery guitar, horns and a swishy synth effect.
Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars and the producer Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Drake, Alicia Keys) share writing and production credits on the song. It originated from a lick that Mars and his band were playing on tour.
“When we hit on that opening line – ‘This s–t, that ice cold. Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold’ – we knew that we had the seed of this really exciting idea,” Ronson told Billboard magazine. “I pushed myself much more than I have on anything else in the past.”
Mars and Ronson create a monster party vibe in this song, starting with the title: “Uptown” implies high class, while “Funk” is the rhythm and release. The lyrics are way over-the-top, with Mars explaining that he’s so hot he’s forcing dragons into retirement. It’s clever, fun and outrageous, but also meticulously constructed with a mix of rhyming patterns.
The song went on to be the biggest of 2015.
Uptown Funk
So there you have it, 2014 in song. Did I miss one of your favorites from that year? Tell me about it in the comments.
Next week, we’ll look at 2015. My list includes the first song my wife and I ever talked about (before we were married) and one by her favorite country singer. It also includes a “tribute” to Frank Sinatra and the worst dance song since Gangnam Style! All that and more next week.
Happy Birthday to The Wicked Mr. (Wilson) Pickett who was born on this day in 1941.
He was born in Prattville, Alabama where he began singing in the Baptist church choir. He was the fourth of 11 children and eventually left to live with his father in Detroit in 1955. It was there that he joined a gospel group called The Violinaires. He toured with them for four years. He was lured by the success of gospel singers who had moved to the lucrative secular music market, joined the Falcons in 1959.
His work with the Falcons helped him to embark on a solo career. In 1965, he had his first hit “In the Midnight Hour,” which featured Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn from Booker T & the MGs. Many hits followed including Land of 1000 Dances, Funky Broadway, and 634-5789.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite Wilson Pickett song, because they are all SO good. There is one song, however, that always sounds fresh to me. It is still a song that people dance to at parties and weddings. It always seems to be on the Top 200 list of songs that DJ’s get requests for, as well. That song? Mustang Sally!
According to Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 Songs, “Mustang Sally nearly ended up on the studio floor – literally. After Pickett finished his final take at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the tape suddenly flew off the reel and broke into pieces. But the session engineer, the legendary Tom Dowd, calmly cleared the room and told everyone to come back in half an hour. Dowd pieced the tape back together and saved what became one of the funkiest soul anthems of the ’60s.”
In honor of the holiday, I felt it was only appropriate to pick a couple Irish tunes. Luckily for you and me, Bing Crosby sang a few in some of his films.
First, from his 1944 film “Going My Way” …
… Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral
Next, one of my favorites from the 1949 film “Top O’ The Morning”….
… the beautiful “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”…
Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May you find your pot of gold at the end of your rainbow!
Comedian Henny Youngman (Photo by Mickey Adair/Getty Images)
The “King of the One Liners,” Henny Youngman, was born today in 1906. He told pretty much the same jokes for 70 years, and they always got laughs! This is sort of a re-blog, as I have posted these before, but here are some of my favorite Henny Youngman lines:
Take my wife… Please!
Why does the New Italian navy have glass bottom boats? To see the Old Italian Navy!
A hooker stopped me on the street and told me ‘I’ll do anything for $50.’ I said, ‘Paint my house.’
I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother.
A little Jewish Grandma is at the Florida coast with her little Jewish Grandson. The grandson is playing on the beach when a big wave comes and washes the kid out to sea. The lifeguards swim out, bring him back to shore, the paramedics work on him for a long time, pumping the water out, reviving him. They turn to the Jewish Grandma, and say, “we saved your grandson.” The little Jewish Grandma says, “He had a hat!”
I told my mother-in-law my house is your house. So she sold it.
Just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport.
My wife ran after the garbage truck, yelling, “Am I too late for the garbage?” “No, jump in!”
A priest is sent to Alaska. A bishop goes up to visit one year later. The bishop asks, “How do you like it up here?” The priest says, “If it wasn’t for my Rosary, and 2 martinis a day, I’d be lost. Bishop, would you like a martini?” “Yes.” “Rosary, get the bishop a martini!”
A man calls a lawyer’s office. The phone is answered, “Schwartz, Schwartz, Schwartz and Schwartz.” The man says, “Let me talk to Mr. Schwartz.” “I’m sorry, he’s on vacation.” “Then let me talk to Mr. Schwartz.” “He’s on a big case, not available for a week.” “Then let me talk to Mr. Schwartz.” “He’s playing golf today.” “Okay, then, let me talk to Mr. Schwartz.” “Speaking.”
I miss my wife’s cooking – as often as I can.
I made a killing in the stock market. I shot my broker.
I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave it up – they have no holidays.
A guy complains of a headache. Another guy says, “Do what I do. I put my head on my wife’s bosom, and the headache goes away.” The next day, the man says, “Did you do what I told you to?” “Yes, I sure did. By the way, you have a nice house!”
An Israeli soldier who just enlisted asked the Commanding Officer for a 3 day pass. The CO says, “Are you crazy? You just join the Israeli army, and you already want a 3 day pass? You must do something spectacular for that recognition!” So the soldier comes back a day later in an Arab tank! The CO was so impressed, he asked, “How did you do it?” “Well, I jumped in a tank, and went toward the border with the Arabs. I approached the border, and saw an Arab tank. I put my white flag up, the Arab tank put his white flag up. I said to the Arab soldier, “Do you want to get a 3 day pass?” So we exchanged tanks!
A man doesn’t know what real happiness is until he’s married. Then it’s too late.
I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.
My wife – She has an electric blender, electric toaster, electric bread maker. Then she said, “There are too many gadgets, and no place to sit down!” So what did I do? Bought her an electric chair.
My other brother-in-law died. He was a karate expert, then joined the army. The first time he saluted, he killed himself.
While playing golf today I hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake.
A man goes to a psychiatrist. The doctor says “You’re crazy” The man says “I want a second opinion!” “Okay, you’re ugly too!”
A patient goes to the doctor and says “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” The doctor replied, “Then don’t do that!”
My horse’s jockey was hitting the horse. The horse turns around and says “Why are you hitting me, there is nobody behind us!”
My wife will buy anything marked down. Last year she bought an escalator.
My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
A doctor says to a man “You want to improve your love life? You need to get some exercise. Run ten miles a day.” Two weeks later, the man called the doctor. The doctor says “How is your love life since you have been running?” “I don’t know, I’m 140 miles away!”
A person asked me, “How do you prepare for the stage?” I told her, “Well, it’s like this. You go to diction school. They teach you to fill your mouth with marbles and talk right through the marbles. Each day you take one marble out. When you’ve lost all your marbles…”
My son complains about headaches. I tell him all the time, when you get out of bed, it’s feet first!
My wife and I always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
Last night I ordered a whole meal in French. Even the waiter was amazed – it was a Chinese restaurant!
A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says “You’ve been brought here for drinking.” The drunk says “Okay, let’s get started.”
My wife got a mudpack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.
A man is at the bar, drunk. I pick him up off the floor, and offer to take him home. On the way to my car, he falls down three times. When I get to his house, I help him out of the car, and on the way to the front door, he falls down four more times. I ring the bell and say, “Here’s your husband!” The man’s wife says, “Where’s his wheelchair?”
I haven’t spoken to my wife in 18 months – I don’t like to interrupt her.
In high school football, the coach kept me on the bench all year. On the last game of the season, the crowd was yelling, “We want Youngman! We want Youngman!” The coach says, “Youngman – go see what they want!”
A man goes to a psychiatrist “Nobody listen to me!” The doctor says “Next!”
Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays. (My personal favorite joke from Henny!)
When I told my doctor I couldn’t afford an operation, he offered to touch-up my X-rays.
I’ve been in love with the same woman for forty-one years. If my wife finds out, she’ll kill me.
Just think, if it weren’t for marriage, men would go through life thinking they had no faults at all.
I bought my wife a little Italian car. A Mafia. It has a hood under the hood.
My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle.
My best friend ran away with my wife, and let me tell you, I miss him.
My wife is on a diet. Coconuts and bananas. She hasn’t lost any weight, but she can sure climb a tree.
A doctor has a stethoscope up to a man’s chest. The man asks “Doc, how do I stand?” The doctor says “That’s what puzzles me!”
I asked my wife, “Where do you want to go for your anniversary?” She said: “I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before.” I said, “Try the kitchen.”
Someone stole all my credit cards, but I wont be reporting it. The thief spends less than my wife did.
The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret.
The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip.
My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City?
Two Santa Clauses on the corner. How can you tell the Polish one? He’s the one with the Easter basket.
I came home, the car was in the dining room. I asked my wife, “How did you get the car in here?” She said, “Easy, I took a left at the kitchen.”
Doctor says to a man “You’re pregnant!” The man says “How does a man get pregnant?” The doctor says “The usual way, a little wine, a little dinner…”
A doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.
A bum asked me “Give me $10 till payday.” I asked “When’s payday?” He said “I don’t know, you’re the one who is working!”
This guy asked his doctor, ‘Will I be able to play the piano after my operation?’ And the doctor says ‘Sure.’ And the guy says, ‘Funny, I couldn’t do it before.’
The Doctor says “You’ll live to be 60.” “I am 60!” “See, what did I tell you?”
My wife told me the car wasn’t running well. There was water in the carburettor. I asked where the car was, and she told me it was in the lake.
There was a girl knocking on my hotel room door all night! Finally, I let her out.
A woman was taking a shower. There is a knock on the door. “Who is it?” “Blind man!” The woman opens the door. “Where do you want these blinds, lady?”
My dressing room is next a woman’s dressing room. There was a little hole in the wall. I let her look.
My brother-in-law had to give up his last job because of illness. His boss became sick of him.
My brother-in-law talks a big game. He tells every one he is a diamond cutter. Diamond cutter!? He mows the lawn at Yankee Stadium.
I loved this quote from Henny about his career – He was quoted in an interview with the online magazine Eye: “I get on the plane. I go and do the job, grab the money and I come home and I keep it clean. Those are my rules. Sinatra does the same thing, only he has a helicopter waiting. That’s the difference.”
I love history. I love reading historical fiction and historical non-fiction. In 2019, Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch began their “Conspiracy” series. It started with The First Conspiracy about the filed plot to kill George Washington. Then there was The Lincoln Conspiracy which was about a failed plot to kill Lincoln. This was followed by The Nazi Conspiracy which told of the failed plot to kill Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.
This time around it is the JFK Conspiracy which is about a plot to kill Kennedy before he even entered the office as President.
I had never heard this story before, but it was very good. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the first assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, right before his inauguration.
Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans’ most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don’t know is that JFK’s historic presidency almost ended before it began—at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite.
On December 11, 1960, shortly after Kennedy’s election and before his inauguration, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick waited in his car—a parked Buick—on a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick knew the president-elect’s schedule. He knew when Kennedy would leave his house. He knew where Kennedy was going. From there, Pavlick had a simple plan—one that could’ve changed the course of history.
Written in the gripping, page-turning style that is the hallmark of Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s bestselling series, this is a slice of history vividly brought to life. Meltzer and Mensch are at the top of their game with this brilliant exploration of what could’ve been for one of the most compelling leaders of the 20th century.
Meltzer and Mensch do such a wonderful job presenting this. There are the familiar characters that we all know: Bobby Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy, and Jackie Kennedy. There are names from behind the scenes, like the men of the Secret Service, too. The book does a wonderful job describing to readers the plan to kill Kennedy. It also shows some of the more “touching” moments with Jackie Kennedy and all that she went through.
I suppose any book about JFK would have to talk about the assassination, and they save that for the end of the book. It all ties together really. Clint Hill is the Secret Service man who is assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy. He is also the agent in those chilling pictures from Dealy Plaza who runs to the President’s car and jumps on the back after the shots are fired.
I have yet to be disappointed by this series. I hope that they continue to find stories like this one to enlighten readers.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a “rite of passage” this way: a ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone’s life, especially birth, puberty, marriage, and death.
Wikipedia says: “A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status is society.“
Some popular rites of passage include:
Getting a driver’s liscence
Completing toilet training
Getting married
Retirement
Getting baptized.
Graduation
While the rite of passage I am talking about today may not be as big an event as the above mentioned, it means a lot to me. It is one that has been passed down to all the males in my family. My grandfather introduced them to my dad. My dad introduced them to me. I introduced them to my two oldest sons, and now my youngest son.
Thursday night, Andrew was fighting wearing his CPAP. This is a regular occurrence that requires some bargaining by mom or dad to get him to do so. Usually, it means he can watch his tablet for a bit or a short show on TV. (Yes, I am aware of how bad TV and screen time before bed it, but a dad’s gotta do what a dad’s gotta do!) My wife’s suggestion floored me. It made me giddy!
“What if dad puts on the Three Stooges for you?”
Did I truly hear what I think I heard? Yes. Yes, I did.
So my son crawled up into bed with us and I found an episode on Youtube.
He chuckled and laughed out loud through the entire episode. Moe slapping Larry or bonking Curly on the head made him laugh almost uncontrollably. I laughed along with him and the two of us, just like his brother’s before him, bonded over slapstick comedy. When I left for work on Friday, he told me that he can’t wait to watch “the three funny guys” again with me.
My wife posted her own picture on social media with the following caption:
“I guess I didn’t know that the love of The Three Stooges was a genetic thing when I married Keith. Now here I am stuck watching this stupidity as a bribe for Andrew to wear his CPAP machine.”
This is a true rite of passage. I couldn’t be more proud! Atta boy, son! The torch has been passed ….
I wish that this picture of Baby Keith was a bit clearer. I must have moved when the picture was taken, because it looks like my hands are a bit blurry. The rest of the photo is clear enough, though.
This photo was a real treasure to find. First of all, I’m in it. Ha! My grandma had a huge light on the ceiling, and eventually a ceiling fan. Based on the year of this picture (1970-71), I don’t think the fan is there yet. Obviously, I am enthralled by something up there.
Second, it is at my grandma’s house. What surprised me about this photo is that there is tile on the floor instead of carpet. Honestly, I do not remember there being tile on the floor, but there it is. This was their living room, so I can’t even understand wanting tile instead of carpet. I suppose I do remember hearing old commercials for Johnson’s Wax on old radio shows, so maybe this was a thing?
Check out that big honking TV in the background! I don’t recall that TV in particular, so I am assuming that by the time I was 6ish, it was gone. Then again, by the time I was 6, there was carpet on the floor, too. Anyway, I love these old televisions. I remember so well those knobs – one for UHF and one for VHF channels. Those things were literally a piece of furniture.
I have no recollection of that ugly rug on the floor. But I do remember seeing that coffee table in a few other photos. I think by the time I was 5 or 6 it had been moved into the front room. I am guessing grandma didn’t want us bonking our heads on it. As I think about it, I don’t know that coffee tables are a thing anymore. Are they? I don’t know many folks who have one in the middle of their living room.
Now, end tables, yes. I think almost everyone has/had them. My grandparents had at least two in every room. Ok, maybe the ones in the bedrooms were more like night stands, but still….
That end table in the corner is one I do remember. I also remember that ugly lamp on top of it. I remember it was very heavy. I think the base of it was concrete or something “rocky.” I have to laugh because if I zoom in on the white bag sitting on the table, it looks like that might be the K-Mart logo. I could be wrong, but my grandma did a LOT of shopping there, so chances are good that it is from there.
Two other things stand out in this photo. The scratchy yellow couch can be seen at the left of the photo. That couch is a core memory. I don’t think I will ever forget that or the scratchy green chair made of the same material.
The last thing is the lone hand in the picture next to the couch. Don’t ask me how I know, but I am 99.9% positive that is my grandpa’s hand. I held his hand often as a youngster, and looked at it age as I grew up. I distinctly remember the look of it as he held a cigarette, a cup of coffee, or a pinochle hand. I also remember it from the last night of his life. I remember holding it and talking to him. Funny how a blurry photo can bring back so many clear memories, isn’t it?
I want to take a moment and say thank you to those who have emailed or commented asking about my wife. She is recovering nicely and has her two week follow up this week.
I returned to work on Thursday. I was supposed to be off Thursday and Friday, but my wife decided I was driving her crazy being home and sent me back early. While I really wasn’t ready to go back, it did allow me to put back some hours in my PTO bank.
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Saturday, my wife said she was going crazy being in the house. She asked to go to Target to walk and shop. We packed every one in the car and spent a good hour walking through the store. As we walked, my kids were literally tossing item after item into the shopping cart! We told them that they could each get one thing. Apparently, they heard one “PILE” of things.
When we got home, my wife went into our room and laid back in bed. It was a lot for her to be out and on her feet that long. I suppose that is why I was surprised when Sunday she asked to go to the Barnes and Noble. I asked if she was sure she wanted to do that. Her answer was a resounding YES.
Again, we packed up the kids and headed to the book store. The kids each got to pick a book and Sam found the one she was looking for as well as another that was recommended to her. There has been a book that I have been waiting to hit the Libby/Hoopla apps, but it hasn’t. So I decided to treat myself to it. I just hope it is as good as all the reviews I read about it.
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We had some nice weather this week, which was great for the kids. They couldn’t wait to get out on their scooters and ride them up and down the sidewalk. They are already asking for their bikes, which are all the way at the back of the garage. At some point, I need to start bringing out the spring/summer stuff so I can get them out.
It will be the annual “Seasonal Shuffle.” The Christmas stuff, which is currently in the front of the garage, along with the snow blower, will have to come out. Then the Barbecue, and other spring lawn furniture will come out. Then the riding lawnmower and lawn tools will come out. That will get me to the bikes and motorized car the kids have.
Once it is all out, I shuffle the winter stuff to the back of the garage. I’ll put the Christmas stuff up in the loft. Finally, I will bring the spring/summer lawn stuff back to the garage so that it is in the front and I can access all of it. It will stay that way until it’s time to shuffle again in the fall. Fun stuff!!
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Ella has been working on her reading. Her teacher says she is really excelling. Other kids in her class are working on sounding out words, too, but Ella is reading.
Tuesday, the teacher sent a book home for her to practice. Yesterday she got to read it to the class. She did it without help! The teacher said her classmates watched her and listened in awe.
We are so proud of her!!
The worry now is that she will be so far ahead in kindergarten that she’ll get bored. I hope that isn’t the case.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
I started this feature on my birthday back in May. We have come from 1970 to 2013. I would turn 43 that year. I was still working in radio part time at the Adult Contemporary station. I also graduated from college that year. It was 2013 that saw the career change from radio to sleep medicine.
Musically, there were quite a few tunes I really liked from 2013. Here are ten of my favorites.
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It is not every day that you hear a “chant” on the radio. That chant is what made Pompeii by Bastille very unique, and maybe even helped it reach top 5 status on the charts.
Songfacts says,
Rare for a hit song, the title never shows up in the lyrics. So why is it called “Pompeii”? Dan Smith told The Daily Telegraph that he was imagining what the dead inhabitants might have to say to one another. “It is essentially about fear of stasis and boredom,” he added. “Being quite a shy, self-conscious person, I was afraid my life might get stuck.”
Dan Smith was not a professional musician when he wrote this song – he was a bartender and student of English literature. He wrote the song in 2010 on a laptop in his bedroom after reading about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He didn’t think anyone outside of his circle of friends would ever hear the song, but when he posted some tracks online, they got enough attention to earn his band a deal with Virgin Records. “Pompeii” was included on their first album and became their breakout hit.
While it isn’t a very “happy” subject, the song did very well.
Pompeii
There’s a song that Willie Nelson recorded called, “You Just Can’t Play a Sad Song on the Banjo.” I suppose that is true. The banjo is what really makes The Best Day of My Life by the American Authors stand out.
Songfacts.com says:
This joyful, banjo-laced tune celebrates the best in life, but was conceived in reaction to tragedy: the Sandy Hook school shooting on December 14, 2012. American Authors bass player Dave Rublin told Songfacts:
“We were upstate in the woods writing with our producer when the Sandy Hook shooting happened. When we heard the news, it was shocking to all of us because it happened right down the street from where we were. And in that framework, we were thinking that the world has hit a whole new low, and we wanted to focus on making things that make people happy and make people feel positive, because that’s something that was missing from rock and from songwriting, just something so simplistic that can be an earworm, that can carry people.”
Vocalist Zachary Barnett said, “We wanted to tell this story of how no matter what’s going on – whether you’re stuck at your job or having a bad day – there’s always an escape from that, and there’s always a way to make any day the best day of your life. It’s about escaping reality and entering into that dream world.”
This song was a big one at school dances when I was DJing. The positive message of the song is one that I can appreciate.
Best Day of My Life
To be clear, I have never seen Pitch Perfect, nor do I intend to (unless asked by my wife). At any rate Cups by Anna Kendrick is a song from that movie. It features the voice of Anna Kendrick accompanied only by a plastic cup, which she uses as improvised percussion. The song serves as her character Beca’s brief audition for the Barden Bellas, an all-female a cappella group from Barden University.
The version used in the movie was not the “hit” version. A longer version (a whole 2:09 minutes!) featuring instrumentation was released to radio in March 2013. I really liked this ditty.
Songfacts says: This song’s success meant that Kendrick became only the second artist to have earned both a top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and nominations in the two leading acting award ceremonies. The singer-actress was nominated for a 1998 Tony Award for featured actress in a musical (High Society) and the 2009 Academy Award for actress in a supporting role (Up in the Air). The only other performer to achieve the same feat is Barbra Streisand.
Cups
Life can be scary. As I have said in the past, my marriage to my ex was over at least a couple of years before the divorce. I stayed because of my boys. I had sworn that I would never divorce or fight like my parents, but I did both.
When my therapist and I talked it became very clear that I was only hurting myself and the kids by staying. As scary as it was, I had to be brave and step out of the comfort zone. I had to do what was right for me. That is kind of the message of Sara Bareillis’ Brave.
Songfacts.com says,
The record was inspired by her own life and addressed some of the demons she was battling. “I have never felt more open and more raw in my entire life,” said Bareilles. “2012 was a year of deconstruction for me personally. I have been confronting some of my greatest fears in the last handful of months and have been amazed at how empowered I can feel when I muster up the courage to turn and growl back at those monsters under the bed.”
Brave
Another song I played on the AC station that I liked had been a huge hit in Norway before going worldwide. Am I Wrong by Nico & Vinz was another great uptempo song that the kids loved at dances.
From Songfacts:
This song was Nico & Vinz’s international breakthrough. It peaked at #2 in their home country where it has been certified three times platinum. The single also hit the Top 10 in many other European countries as well as the US. “We always knew it was possible to reach outside of Norway with our music,” Sereba told Billboard magazine. “With this song, we wanted to say, ‘Are we wrong for thinking that we can actually do this?’ That’s how that message came about – trusting your gut feeling, going for it and searching for your own happiness.”
The theme continues – Before deciding on the divorce I had to “trust my gut feeling and go for it” as Sereba said.
Am I Wrong
Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic had great success as a writer. He wrote songs for Leona Lewis and Beyonce, just to name a few. Counting Stars is the first hit for him as a performer.
For whatever reason, I was really drawn to OneReublic’s music. When I read this quote from Ryan, it makes sense as to why. He told Billboard magazine that he finds it gratifying that so many have connected with such an uplifting and meaningful song.
“I think it’s our responsibility as a band, and what separates us from everyone else. I took that from being a fan of U2 for two decades now, since Achtung Baby,” he said. “To this day, they might be the only band on that level who sings about things other than just boy-girl troubles or the kind of selfish, ‘I’m a badass’ stuff. I’ve spoken with Bono about this when we toured with him, and he said the same thing.”
“I felt a responsibility to actually write and sing about things that have a level of human gravity to them,” Tedder continued. “If everybody else sings about sex and love and lust and money, then somebody’s gotta be singing about life and faith and hope and things of that nature. And in the pantheon of their esteemed career, they’ve had two #1 hits, and I think both were 25 years ago. It’s not about that – it’s about what songs feel real. I’d rather have a song that peaks at #15 that’s meaningful and embedded in the cultural framework we live in than a #1 song that explodes for five seconds, becomes the dance hit of the summer, then goes away.”
Counting Stars
Here is another song that got the kids dancing at school dances. I can see why. The Best Song Ever by One Direction may not be that, but it is a good one. It follows a proven format that has been used for decades. More on that in a second.
The song was compared to being almost identical to The Who’s Baba O’Riley. As a matter of fact, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend brushed off unsubstantiated reports that his band wanted to sue One Direction or seek to have this song withdrawn.
“No! I like the single. I like One Direction,” he told Uncut magazine. “The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we’ve all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don’t mean great music – not always. “
“I’m still writing songs that sound like ‘Baba O’Riley’ – or I’m trying to! It’s a part of my life and a part of pop’s lineage,” Townshend continued.
“One Direction are in my business, with a million fans, and I’m happy to think they may have been influenced a little bit by The Who. I’m just relieved they’re all not wearing boiler suits and Doc Martens, or Union Jack jackets.”
To me, I feel it is different enough. I guess I can hear a little of Baba in here. What do you think?
Best Song Ever
Again, another uptempo AC song makes the list. Again, a big dance song. This time around the personal connection is I remember my oldest boy loving this song. Wake Me Up By Avicii was another song that I loved a lot.
Songfacts says, Songwriting credits go to Avicii, Aloe Blacc, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Einziger of the rock band Incubus. They wrote the song at Einziger’s home studio in Malibu, California. According to Blacc, Avicii and Eizinger had the track worked up when he arrived. He had disparate bits of lyrics on hand, one of which was the line “Wake me up,” which he felt was the strongest message to go with the track.
While Einziger played, Blacc sang, “Wake me up when it’s all over,” and the cadence of the line went with the chord progression. The next line Blacc introduced from his notebook was “All this time I was finding myself, I didn’t know I was lost.” Blacc was concerned that these two lines wouldn’t make any sense in the same song, but Einziger told him it was fine, so they went with it.
Aloe Blacc came up with the lyrics on an airplane. “I was thinking to myself, ‘My life is a dream. Wake me up when it’s over,'” he recalled to Billboard magazine. “When I walked into the session with Mike Einziger on guitar and Avicii, Mike was playing his guitar chords and these words… the way I sang them just felt right. We ended up recording it that night and I drove home listening to this acoustic version that Avicii eventually made into a fantastic hit. It’s a wonderful experience.”
Wake Me Up
2013 was a very easy year for me to DJ for school dances, obviously. So many of these songs tie right into those dances. One Direction was a very hot group, so it is no wonder that they show up twice on my list. This time around it is Story of My Life.
From Songfacts:
Niall Horan recalled the first time Jamie Scott played them the song during an interview with UK radio station Capital FM. “We were in Nottingham on tour when we were touring the UK back in February and March,” he recalled, “and we just came into a room one day and he was like, ‘I’ve got this song that I’ve written and I want to play [it for] you.’ And we just fell in love with it the second we heard it.”
The song is more folk-orientated than most of One Direction’s previous offerings, but Scott told MTV News the quintet have the talent to pull it off. “It’s not that hard a thing to do because the boys have really good voices, they’ve all got very different voices. Harry [Styles’] rasp is something that you can always lean towards… All the boys have such a great sound themselves,” he said. “For instance the demo that we played the boys sounds a lot more folky than it does now. That’s what amazing about their voices [when they record it] straight away it sounds like them.”
Story of My Life
Happiness is a theme in many of these songs. It continues with my final selection by Pharrell Williams – Happy. Most hit songs around this time were written by teams of writers, but this one was entirely composed by Pharrell Williams. He wrote and recorded the song for the soundtrack of the 3D computer-animated action comedy film Despicable Me 2. Williams also penned tunes for the first Despicable Me movie.
I loved how Songfacts puts this:
Finding a way to follow a trend and be unique at the same time seems like an impossible task, but that is exactly what Williams was facing with “Happy.” It could have easily drowned in the stream of other songs that blended R&B, funk and soul if not for some clever techniques to help it ride the wave to the top of the charts.
For one, it had to be an earworm, and to do that, repetition is key. Aside from repeating the uplifting title 56 times, over 62% of the song is dedicated to its memorable chorus (about 20% more chorus time than most hits of the era). To make room for that monstrous chorus, there is no pre-chorus, solo, instrumental break or outro.
There is no denying that it is an earworm! All I can say is that as someone who is finally happy, I can understand proclaiming it over and over again!
Happy
That brings us to the end of 2013. What favorite of yours did I miss? Mention it in the comments.
Next week, we move into 2014. The list next week includes a Disney song, a song that dates back to 1934, some great dance songs, and one that I play at least twice when it comes up on my iPod. I hope you’ll join me next week.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 