Turntable Talk #29 – The Jury Says Guilty (Pleasure)

Once again, Dave Ruch from A Sound Day has offered up a unique musical topic for his feature “Turntable Talk.” If no one has already, let me give Kudos to him for hosting this every month. To his credit, he can come up with topics that one month I know instantly what I am going to write about and another month I really struggle to come up with something. That being said, Here is our instructions for this month:

“This time, let’s think cheesy, sugary delites… The Jury Says Guilty! (Pleasure That Is). Be bold and tell us one musical guilty pleasure of yours … it could be one song, or a whole artist’s catalog. Stuff you think you shouldn’t like… but do! Of course, most minds go straight to some of those sappy ’70s and ’80s songs, but it can be anything…. the soft rocker who loves AC-DC or the person with good musical taste who loves hearing The Chicken Dance.“

As someone who loves all types of music, I found this to be a really hard topic to write about. If you were to grab my iPod and listen to it, you would hear a LOT of different genres and artists. If you just hit “next” for a few songs, you could go from Chuck Berry to Barry White to the White Stripes to music from the soundtrack of the movie Stripes. Then you could hear Beethoven, a radio jingle, a song from Weird Al Yankovic, and ZZ Top. Keep going and you will hear songs from cartoons my kids grew up with, TV theme songs, and Big Band/Swing music.

Do you see what I mean? Most people know that I was a radio DJ and that I was exposed to a lot of music. So what type of music could possible surprise them? What would YOU think would be “odd” for me to listen to? Just for the heck of it, please answer in a comment. I’d love to know.

After mulling it over for some time, I almost just caved and went with Polka Medleys by Weird Al. I LOVE those things. He takes hit songs and does a medley of them as a polka. But does that really surprise anyone? I doubt it. I have made it no secret that I think Al is a musical genius.

At this point, I did what I normally do when I need to think – I grabbed my iPod and began to listen. It didn’t take long to find what my guilty pleasure is. As a matter of fact, I tried to convince myself NOT to write about it. Why? Because by admitting this, you will truly know what a nerd I am.

As the Nostalgic Italian, I tend to look back on a lot of things from my past with fond memories. There are some years (under the heading “First Marriage”) that I would rather not look back on. I loved high school. I didn’t want it to end. This was mainly because of band class. My core friends were in band and we have so many wonderful memories of those days in the band room. We would often stay after school and pull out songs we had played before just to play them again.

After I graduated, we’d come back during summer band camp to help our band director with charting and marching techniques. We created the Alumni Band so that us old guys could come back and march in the homecoming parade. We played Christmas carols in the auditorium lobby before the band’s holiday concert. I was there so much, my parents used to ask me, “Are you EVER going to graduate?!”

That is a pretty long backstory to get to my musical guilty pleasure, but hopefully it explains why there is plenty of “band” music on my iPod. When I began to search iTunes for random titles of songs we played in school and actually found some of them played by various bands and orchestras, I started downloading them.

A buddy of mine still had all of the band concert programs and he sent me copies of them. The search for songs brought me to more and more of them. With YouTube, I began to find even more of those songs (often played by other high school bands). I found a way to make MP3’s out of those videos and added them to the iPod.

I suppose the only songs you might know would be the popular ones by John Phillip Sousa or Leroy Anderson. Every once in a while we would play a medley of Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin songs from Tin Pan Alley, and even Beach Boys songs. We played The Navy Hymn when the Challenger exploded a couple days before our concert. I would say that most of the songs we played were things you wouldn’t recognize.

When I was working on midnights, I would often pull up my “band” music, throw on headphones and begin tapping my foot. I can still recall the melody and counter melody lines I had in various marches that we played. I can remember Mr. Shaner, our band director, talking to our trumpet section about this one beat in a trumpet feature where the four parts blended into what he called a “flourish.” One beat in the whole song. We played that “flourish” a few times so we knew how important it was.

I wasn’t going to share links, but after trying to describe the “flourish,” I thought the song might help. I hope it will play for you as it is not a You Tube link. This is the demo created for the song by the music publisher. This was a Trumpet section feature. It featured four part harmonies and each part had a solo. The one note “flourish” is underplayed by this demo, but happens at the :58 second mark

https://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/media-player.jsp?&type=audio&productID=2160125E

Listening to those songs takes me back to the high school band room. A place that was our headquarters. Our safe place. Those songs bring back memories of the black, metal music stands and all the warm up scales. Mostly, it brings me back to a place where I was happy. I belonged. I was cared about. I was loved. I was creative. I had fun. We shared laughter and tears. We all came together with one purpose – to make music.

There is one song that has always caused me to “get lost” in it. It is a piece by JS Bach. We played this song at a band festival and it is hauntingly beautiful. The song is called “Come, Sweet Death.” When I listen to it, I close my eyes and just “feel” the music. The melody carries me off and I tend to picture something different every time I listen to it. According to Wikipedia, “Bach, by means of melody and harmony, expresses the desire for death and heaven. It is among his most popular works and has been adapted and transformed by several composers.”

Grant me a small favor? Put on some headphones, close your eyes and spend about 4 minutes in the song. If you don’t feel something, well, then I guess I’m nerdier than I thought.

I suppose I shouldn’t end this piece on such a somber note. So, here is one more memory.

While Sousa was known as the March King, one of my favorite marches was one we played at band festival one year. I think every group had to have a march to play as one of their three songs and ours was called Hall of Fame. I love this one because of some great fanfare trumpet parts, a pleasant melody and counter melody, some really great bass parts, and the fact that it sounds happy. The year we played this we got a first division rating at festival. Give it a listen, if you want to…

Maybe I am not alone here. Other band students remember their time in band as fondly as me, right? Maybe they don’t go to the extreme that I do, but, ok, I’m going to just wrap it up. I think I have embarrassed myself enough, so I will close by thanking Dave for taking me out of my comfort zone and for hosting another great topic. I am very interested to see what the other contributors offer up, too.

Thank you for reading. I’ll pass the baton (pun intended) to the next guy ….

Friday Photo Flashback

Tuesday was National Radio Day! This is not to be confused with World Radio Day which is celebrated on February 13th every year. On Facebook, many of my radio friends posted old photos and listed the call letters of all the stations that they worked at. I did the same, but neglected to do an entire blog about it. I think the reason for that is that I have written a lot of blogs about radio, radio mentors, radio friends, and radio listeners. If you are new to this blog, I will share a link or two after today’s photo, which ties into “radio.”

I have never really grasped just how lucky I was to land my first few radio jobs in a major market. I spent a lot of time on the airwaves in Detroit. One of those stops was at WWWW-FM (W4 Country). Many remember that this was the station Howard Stern worked at in the early 80’s. It played rock at the time, but so did a few other stations in the market, so they switched format to Country. They actually wanted to call him “Hopalong Howie!” You know the rest of that story.

When I worked there, I was there in a part time capacity and had a lot of fun.

The above picture was taken while I was out at a station appearance. I believe one of my listener friends took this photo of me. This must have been taken around 1997. I was still wearing glasses, so I had yet to have my Lasik surgery. I am also much skinnier!

I loved the station apparel we got to wear. The station logo on that yellow always seemed to “pop” to me. I wish that I had thought like some of my other radio friends and saved something from every station I worked at (logo items). I think some stuff got lost in a move or went to Goodwill. I may still have station coffee mugs somewhere!

I don’t want to sound egotistical, but this is one of my favorite radio pictures. I don’t recall if this was an a concert (which it probably was) or at some type of remote broadcast, but I like it. I haven’t had a goatee since I got married to Sam. She loves my full beard (and I love that I don’t have to shave every day). The beard here is much darker than it is today. There’s a whole lotta grey in there now!

The baseball cap is one that I bought at the ballpark. It was the only one that I ever owned that was fitted. What a difference between those and the ones with the snappy things on the back. It fit SO good. I loved that hat.

I can’t help but laugh at the size of my eyebrows! I once told a joke on the air that my eyebrows had their own Facebook page! I did create one (Keith Allen’s Eyebrows), but deleted it some time later after it had brought about as many laughs as I could milk out of it.

I also have to laugh at the “Nokia” banner behind me. Why? Because at the time, me and half the world had THAT Nokia phone!

Even though Covid forced me into “radio retirement,” I still look back at those days with many memories. You can read more of those memories below. First a compilation of a few radio blogs here:

A “Best of Radio” Blog

Shortly after that one was published, Dave from A Sound Day asked me a few radio questions that I answered here:

Interview with Dave from A Sound Day

Finally, after many blogs praising one of my favorite bosses and mentors, I was shocked to hear of the passing of one of them. Here was my tribute to Richard D.

A Voice Silenced. A Friend Lost. A Legend Remembered.

I suppose this was a lot for a simple “Photo Flashback,” but radio is and will always be in my blood. It is something that I love to talk about and always brings about so many memories…..

Book Recommendation: The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip

“You have to be the friend people need while they are there with you, because it’s the only chance you’ll get.” – (The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip)

Sometimes the title of a book is enough to peak my interest. If you go back through some of the books I’ve read in the past year, you’ll find that a lot of the mysteries I’ve read had interesting titles. When I saw “The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip,” I truly believed this was going to be a murder mystery.

Even the synopsis made the think that there was some “mystery” to this story.

The Goodreads synopsis:

Aidyn Kelley is talented, ambitious, and ready for a more serious assignment than the fluff pieces she’s been getting as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. In her eagerness, she pushes too hard, earning herself the menial task of writing an obituary for an unremarkable woman who’s just entered hospice care. But there’s more to Clara Kip than meets the eye. The spirited septuagenarian may be dying, but she’s not quite ready to cash it in yet. Never one to shy away from an assignment herself, she can see that God brought the young reporter into her life for a reason. And if it’s a story Aidyn Kelley wants, that’s just what Mrs. Kip will give her—but she’s going to have to work for it.

Admittedly, the book was NOT what I expected. I gathered that from the first chapter or two. So how can I begin to tell you what it is about? This book is hard to describe, because I’ve not seen one quite like it before. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised. I felt that different is good in this case.

Before I go any further, I want to say that the book was Christian fiction. I was not aware of this when I began reading it. Not that it made a difference to me, as I am a Christian and was not offended in any way by the occasional quotes from Scripture, a character reading her Bible, or talk about God. It was a breath of fresh air to me.

That being said, I will be completely honest and warn that it may be a difficult read for someone who has recently lost a loved one. My mother passed from cancer in 2006, and there were things that happened in the book that took me back to those moments with her. It was a difficult book for me to read only because of that, but it was such an important part of the story.

While there are some incredibly sad parts in the book, they do not overshadow the wonderfully amazing happy and joyful parts. If I had to describe the book, I would say that it is unique, unusual, and extraordinary.

I was hooked from the very beginning. I listened to the audio version and it was one of those books that I may have to go and buy so I can have a physical copy. There were times that a character would say something and I wished I could highlight it to reread over and over. One reviewer said, “It’s the type of book that moves you to love more deeply and challenges you in your walk with God.” I would tend to agree.

At one point in the book, Mrs. Kip spots a leaf on a tree. She turns to the young reporter and says, “A leaf is a silent proverb. Did you ever consider that? When it buds on the tree, people rejoice. Throughout is prime, they love it for the shade it provides. But only when it reaches the end of its time on the tree does its brilliance come through. Sometimes yellow, sometimes orange, sometimes deep red. Dazzling in its artistry, like a drop of sunset you can see at all house of the day.” Clara (Mrs. Kip) smiled. “A leaf has the most extraordinary death. There is so much beauty to it.”

The above analogy really struck a chord with me. It was so very powerful. It was things like this that I could see myself highlighting and keeping.

I read some reviews of the books done by the blogging community and there were more than a few who said that they almost stopped reading the book for one reason or another. As they stuck with it, they were glad that they did and had high praise for the book. I was struck right from the get-go, even though it was not what I had expected the story to be.

5 out of 5 Stars from me.

Dressing Up

You may remember a week or so ago that my wife bought a bunch of costumes for the kids to dress up in. Can I tell you that this has been so much fun for them, especially on rainy days.

A few more costumes have been added since the original post, but what I love is that they have found ways to mix and match as they play. The results have been …. humerous.

Edna from the Incredibles was quick to say, “No Capes!” However, the kids seem to be using them as accessories to various costumes. The hospital exam glove on Andrew’s hand is there for no reason in particular. Believe it or not the yellow had Ella is wear is a cowboy hat. How it got mangled into that shape is beyond me. Daisy had a hat on, but it fell as I snapped this photo.

My favorite outfit of the week is the ensemble that Andrew put together to go “scooter riding.”

First, Ninja Turtle pajamas. Next, we have Ella’s T-ball cleat on one hand and his baseball glove on the other. Top top it all off, he has a regular baseball cap on his head and on top of that, the hat from the Paw Patrol Chase costume. I do not have to wonder why people driving down our street slow and stare at him as he happily rides his scooter up and down the driveway.

Bitsy

The thing about our new kitty is that she is so tiny. She hides everywhere. She snuck out when the kids had the side door open this week and didn’t go far. As a matter of fact, she sat in front of the door meowing.

She can get into tight spaces and since she got out once, when we can’t find her, I freak a bit. I could not find her the other day and thought, “Ok, maybe she is sleeping under a chair or in the basement.” So I sat down with a cup of coffee and out of the corner of my eye, I looked at the shoe rack. Sure enough …..

She’s a sneaky one.

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” – Leonardo da Vinci.

The Music of My Life – 1984

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.

1984 was a big year for me. It was a year of change as I started high school that year. It was also the year that the Detroit Tigers won the World Series! What an amazing year!

Musically, it was the year of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Weird Al’s Eat It, and Prince had a few hits, too. As I looked over the list from ’84, there are a lot of “staple” 80’s hits from this year. Alas, not too many of those made my list. I apologize to fans of A-ha.

My first pick is one of a few songs that I could feature on my Music Movie Monday feature because it comes from a great soundtrack. Beverly Hills Cop was huge here in Michigan because Eddie Murphy plays a Detroit cop. But there is another Detroit connection as well…

According to songfacts.com: “The Heat Is On” was written for the film by Harold Faltermeyer (who also wrote Axel F for the film) and Keith Forsey, and they needed a popular artist to sing it. The Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack album was on MCA Records, which Glenn Frey recently signed with. MCA asked several of their male rock singers to audition for the lead vocal for the song. At first Frey thought this wasn’t something “rock stars” did, but he decided to go along, just for fun, never thinking they’d pick him. Harold Faltermeyer was impressed by Frey’s vocal (the instrumental tracks were already recorded) and shocked Frey by using his version. It was Frey’s biggest solo hit, reaching #2 in the US.

The other Detroit connection? Glenn Frey was born and raised in Detroit where he played in bands with names like The Mushrooms and Subterraneans before heading to Los Angeles and joining the Eagles.

The Heat Is On

I have already mentioned Thriller by Michael Jackson. Spoiler Alert: It isn’t on my list. However, you gotta admit that the video was pretty darn good, right? I mean it was all over MTV and people still copy the dance for it at weddings and such. But would you believe that it did NOT win the first-ever Video of the Year award at MTV’s Video Music Awards? So what video did?

That honor went to You Might Think by The Cars! Today a video like this would be pretty easy to make, however, the video was very advanced for the time and was one of the first to use computerized effects. Singer/guitarist Ric Ocasek’s image appeared in various animated scenes – he would show up as a fly, climbing the Empire State Building, just about anywhere to get the attention of the girl. (The object of his affection was played by model Susan Gallagher.) When the video was first aired, it was done so without the fly – because technically, the video’s effects were not done.

The song was released in February 1984, as the first single from their Heartbeat City album. “You Might Think” peaked at number seven in the United States. This is one of those videos that I always got a laugh out of. It seemed so silly to me. It was directed by Jeff Stein (who was famous for other videos). He thought The Cars were a boring live band so he used digital trickery to get around that. I think it worked.

You Might Think

The next song is the “love theme” from the movie Footloose. You may remember in one of my past posts about Footloose that Dean Pitchford not only wrote the screenplay for the movie, but he wrote all the lyrics to all the songs (some with co-writers). He wrote Almost Paradise with Eric Carmen.

The Footloose producers wanted it to be a duet. They knew that they wanted Heart’s Ann Wilson for their female voice. They contacted Wilson, and asked her for a list of preferred duet partners. Her list included Paul Rodgers and Lou Gramm, but it was Mike Reno (the lead singer for Loverboy) – not on the list – who was chosen.

They recorded the song together at a session in Chicago with Keith Olsen, who had worked on Heart’s Passionworks album and also the 1975 Fleetwood Mac album, producing. At the time, Ann was nursing a broken wrist, but stayed off her painkillers so she wouldn’t be compromised during the session. They put their vocals down over the track that had already been recorded, then went their separate ways. She thought it was a great song, but was still surprised it was released as a single. She was even more surprised when it became a staple of proms and weddings.

That is the reason the song is on my list. I was a junior in high school and was dating a senior. She asked me to go to her prom, which was titled “Almost Paradise.” I think it was their class song, I don’t know for sure. I remember this would have been in 1987, so the song was a few years old by then. With every ticket, the student received a wine glass with the Almost Paradise logo on it. LOL – it didn’t take long for the school to stop giving away wine glasses!

Almost Paradise

Huey Lewis was a big part of my high school days! My buddy Steve and I loved cruising around and listening to Huey’s albums. This was one I loved the minute I heard it. As a lover of oldies and the Rock and Roll greats, I heard it as a “hat tip” to them and their influence on music.

In a 2013 Billboard interview, Huey said they song found its roots in Cleveland. “‘The Heart of Rock & Roll’ was written driving out of Cleveland. We’d heard that Cleveland was this great rock and roll town, and we’re from San Francisco – how can Cleveland be anything? We went to play the Agora Ballroom and had this amazing gig. On the bus out of town I was looking at the skyline of Cleveland and I said, ‘You know what boys? The heart of rock and roll really is in Cleveland. Hey, that’s a pretty good song title. Later I thought it through and went, ‘The heart of rock and roll is still beating’. The idea is that, although the music business is in New York and LA, good rock and roll is where you find it.”

Sports was one of my favorite albums back then. I had it on vinyl to play at home and on cassette to play in the car. The Heart of Rock and Roll the third of five singles from Sports, the third Huey Lewis & the News album. All of the singles were hits, and the album went on to sell over 7 million copies in America, putting the band of firm financial footing for the first time, which was very important to them – these guys were all in their 30s and had been working in music since the early ’70s.

The Heart of Rock and Roll

My dad was really involved in the local Vietnam Veteran’s chapter when I was in high school. As we got older, me and some of the guys would go up to their events. They often had cook outs, holiday dances, and fund raisers. I met so many great people at these events and came to love hanging out with them. My dad would spin records for the group.

Along with many oldies he would play songs like “Some Gave All,” “Goodnight, Saigon,” and “The Ballad of the Green Berets.” But it was always at the end of the night that my dad would play God Bless the USA. The first time I witnessed this, I choked up. Everyone in the building gathered on the dance floor and held hands. They would sing this song at the top of their lungs and raise their hands in the air. It was truly moving.

This song holds a special place in my heart for those friends.

God Bless The U.S.A.

The videos of many songs will forever be what I think of when I hear them. We’re Not Gonna Take It is a great example. I remember thinking it was cool that “the guy who played Niedermeyer in Animal House” was the dad in this video!

According to Dee Snider, he started writing this song in 1980, two years before Twisted Sister released their first album, Under the Blade. He had the hook, but couldn’t come up with a verse melody. After Def Leppard released their Pyromania album in 1983, Snider came up with a plan. “In studying some of Mutt Lange’s work with Def Leppard, I saw that a number of their songs were using variations on the chorus as a verse. That gave me the information I needed to come up with the rest of ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It.'”

Songfacts.com perfectly describes the song this way: “This is the mighty anthem for anyone lashing out at an authority figure and ready to put up a fight. The song is short on specifics, so it can apply to just about any situation where “we” are battling “the powers that be.” This all-purpose approach was intentional and gave the song a timeless quality.“

We’re Not Gonna Take It

When I first moved to Mid-Michigan, I discovered that there was a local hockey team. The Flint Generals played in a sports arena that held like 3000 people. There wasn’t a bad seat in the place. I loved being able to see these guys slam up against the glass. It was great!!

When the Generals disbanded, the public hoped for hockey to continue. They would up bringing in a hockey team that was made up of college aged kids and the team was called The Michigan Warriors.

The hockey was a bit less violent, but it was still hockey. I always loved a night out at the games. When they would introduce the members of the team (and at the end of each game) they always played Scandal’s The Warrior.

The Warrior

The next song is one that I always liked because the hook is catchy and it had a cool sax part. Sadly, it is also the subject of one of the biggest flubs I ever did on the air.

Released in August of 1984, “Smooth Operator” was the breakout hit in America for Sade, who were based in England. Their debut album, Diamond Life, was first issued in 1984 in the UK, where “Smooth Operator” was the third charting single. In the US, the album was released in 1985, with “Hang On To Your Love” as the first single. It went nowhere, but the next single, “Smooth Operator,” rose to #5 and earned the group a reputation as an exotic soulful act with a captivating frontwoman.

One night I was working at WMXD and I came out of the song and realized that I had never known who sang it. I looked at the music log and read, “Sade.” So that’s what I called her – “Sade” (Say-d). The phones lit up and people were either making fun of me or asking why I was playing songs when I couldn’t even pronounce the name of the artist! I was embarrassed. I had no idea until I pulled the CD out of the player and saw the writing ….

What a dope!!

Smooth Operator

Sea of Love was a song that I heard often on the oldies station. Phil Phillips had recorded it in 1959 and it was a top 5 hit. The song was covered by Robert Plant’s Honeydrippers in 1984. They truly were a rock and roll supergroup – Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Paul Schaffer, Nile Rogers and other greats appeared in the group.

They only released one EP, The Honeydrippers: Volume One. Sea of Love took their remake all the way up to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. I love the orchestration of this version so much. The EP is worth a listen – Rockin’ At Midnight would go to #25. The success of the songs led Plant to say that a full album would be released, but it never came to be.

Sea of Love

My final pick is one that is really embarrassing. So why is it here? Because the minute I saw it as a released single, the chorus became an ear worm and stuck in my head. If I have to walk around singing it over and over, you may as well, too!

My 14 year old self loved novelty records. I had Spike Jones, Weird Al, and many more in my collection. When I first heard this “rap” song, I laughed like hell. When I ran to the store to get the single, I remember thinking how cool it was that I got the 12 inch vinyl record. It had the single, an extended mix, and on the B-side an instrumental.

As I listened to this before adding it officially to my list, I thought, “What in the world did I like about this song?! It really is kinda dumb.” At the same time, all these years later, there are still people I know who will break into a chorus of “Duh Ha, Duh Ha! Duh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha..”

Yep, that gives it away. I was a fan of the Rappin’ Duke by Shawn Brown. Do I really need to go into any history on this one? Probably not. Forgive me for the earworm….

Rappin’ Duke

Next week I’ll take a look at 1985 and how some of those songs connect to my life. Movie music will be in there for sure, a tribute to some legends, the first slow song I remember dancing to, and maybe a song I have featured once before on this blog. See you next week!

Tune Tuesday – Please Read The Letter

Today is the 76th birthday of a legend who quit his training as a chartered accountant immerse himself in the England Midlands blues scene. One can only imagine the classics we would have missed out on had the great Robert Plant continued to work with numbers!

Plant, of course, rose to fame as the vocalist and songwriter of the classic rock band Led Zeppelin. I had my share of Zeppelin songs I could have posted today. The Immigrant Song, Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog, Kashmir, When the Levee Breaks, All My Love, Good Times Bad Times, Rock and Roll, and Stairway to Heaven – just to name a few! However, I decided to go with a song that may be totally unknown to many readers.

After Zeppelin broke up, Plant recorded as mainly as a solo artist. In 2007, he teamed up with one of the greatest voices in country music, Alison Krauss, to record a critically acclaimed album entitled Raising Sand. The album itself stands out as an exceptional work of art. It would go on to win Album of the Year in 2008 at the Americana Music and Honors Awards and at the Grammy Awards.

Allmusic called it “one of the most effortless-sounding pairings in modern popular music,” JamBase called it “subtle, focused and full of life,” and the Village Voice in New York called it “powerfully evocative” and “utterly foreign, oddly familiar, and deeply gratifying.” Critics praised Krauss and Plant’s vocals; one critic saying that the “key to the magic is the delicious harmony vocals of the unlikely duo.”

One of my favorite cuts is Please Read The Letter. Fans of Robert Plant may know this song because it was written by Plant and Jimmy Page and recorded back in 1998 for their Walking Into Clarksdale album (They recorded it as Page and Plant). Plant said of the song in an interview that it is a song about yearning for someone, adding that the lyrics are about “unfinished business.”

I read where one critic said that the Plant/Krauss version was a HUGE step up from the original. I truly agree. There is something about the way their voices blend together on this song and on the album that is worth checking out. Give it a listen and tell me what you think…

Please Read The Letter

Caught out running with just a little too much to hide
Maybe baby, everything’s gonna turn out fine
Please read the letter, I nailed it to your door
It’s crazy how it all turned out we needed so much more

Too late, too late a fool could read the signs
Maybe baby, you’d better check between the lines
Please read the letter, I wrote it in my sleep
With help and consultation from the angels of the deep

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

Once I took beside a well of many words
My house is full of rings, and charms, and pretty birds
Please understand me, my walls came falling down
There’s nothing here that’s left for you
But check with lost and found

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote, oh

One more song just before we go
Remember baby, you gotta reap just what you sow
Please read my letter and promise me you’ll keep
The secrets and the memories we cherish in the deep
Please read the letter, I nailed it to your door
It’s crazy how it all turned out we needed so much more

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

Oh no, oh, oh no

Please read the letter
Please read the letter
Please read the letter

Oh, yeah, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, yeah, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Happy Birthday, Robert Plant!

Movie Music Monday – Easy Money

Last week the Music of My Life post focused on 1983, and coincidentally today’s Movie Music comes from a 1983 comedy. Easy Money was released on this day back in ’83 and has one of the funniest last lines I’ve ever heard!

The film stars Rodney Dangerfield, Joe Pesci, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Rodney plays Monty Capuletti who loves to drink, smoke and gamble. When his rich mother-in-law dies his family is told that they will inherit $10 million. There is one condition – Monty has to give up drinking, smoking, gambling and live a healthy life for 365 days.

The movie earned $5,844,974 in its opening weekend, ranking number one at the domestic box office, toppling the prior three-week #1 run of National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Gene Siskel wrote that “the big discovery in the comedy ‘Easy Money’ is that Rodney Dangerfield, unlike most stand-up comics, does not need dialogue to be funny. He is funny just standing still—or his version of standing still, which includes nervous twitching, profuse sweating, pained expressions and rolling of the eyes.” Rodney is indeed funny in this movie, but Pesci’s performance is just as funny!

Billy Joel was asked to write a song for a new Rodney Dangerfield movie, also titled Easy Money, and he came up with “Easy Money.” This triggered the retro approach to the rest of the songs his An Innocent Man album. (Rodney later appeared in the music video for “Tell Her About It’.)

Easy Money is what one author called “a get-up-and-dance, snap-your-fingers, clap-your-hands song complete with a beefy horn section and Billy channeling the vocals of the king of soul, James Brown, or Wilson Pickett.” The lyrics are just as catchy as Billy keeps delivering clever metaphors (“I got a hot slot machine of a system ready to go”) only this time the song’s theme is looking for easy money, rather than trying to get a girl. Billy was clearly having a good time as he is singing.

I always loved this one, sadly, it was never released as a single. I really think this one could have been a huge hit. It’s just too fun!

Rerun, Rewatch, Repeat, Rejuvinate!

Based on something I stumbled on recently, my mental health should be in tip top shape! Yours may be, to, especially if you love to binge watch your favorite TV shows over and over again. There are some people who just don’t get why someone would want to watch something (whether it be a TV show or a movie) repeatedly. However, it turns out that rewatching TV shows can actually be good for your mental health.

There have been numerous studies that have explored the psychological impact of a person’s favorites on television. One example is a series of four studies that were published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology back in 2009. The study found links to an increased sense of belonging and decreased feelings of rejection and loneliness when the study participants thought about their familiar TV favorites. If you are like me, you can’t help but wonder why this is the case.

It is thought that rewatching favorite shows can be helpful to us when we may be feeling down and disconnected from others because of the familiarity that our favorite shows provide. Shira Gabriel, PhD, one of the study’s co-authors said in an interview with Everyday Health, “Rewatching shows allows us to dive into a social world that we already know and already feel connected to. It is a fast way to feel connected, much like talking to an old friend makes one feel connected more quickly than a new person.”

This makes complete sense to me. We find a connection to these characters that we watch every week. You can probably think of a moment right now where the death of a TV character moved you to tears. At the same time, we get emotional when we watch a series finale and we actually have to say goodbye to these characters that have become such a part of our lives.

At the same time, this also might explain why we sometimes try to say what characters on these TV shows remind us of our friends and ourselves. For example, when talking about Sex And The City, people will say they’re the Carrie in their group while their bestie is Samantha and their other pal is definitely Miranda. If you are familiar with Sanford and Son, I will tell you that I call my dad “Pop” and he calls me Lamont.

These recent studies show that rewatching our favorite TV shows can also be incredibly comforting and provide a safe space to regulate our emotions and decompress. These shows can give us a sense of safety, especially when we may be stressed out from work, struggling in our relationships, or anxious in general. We are comfortable in the familiarity of the show itself.

While the studies focused primarily on rewatching TV shows, I would think that the same type of data would come from rewatching movies, too. I have my favorites that I go to when I need to laugh, as I am sure you do. It is not odd for me to interject movie quotes in my daily conversations with people. It’s like a second language to my friends and me.

It makes me wonder how this sort of thing would apply to people who read a book more than once or listen to the same music over and over. There would have to be some sort of connection, wouldn’t you think?

Well, if you got anything out of this blog, you received validation and permission to watch your favorite TV show and enjoy it over and over and over again. Feel free to talk about your “go to” rerun in the comments …. If you will excuse me, I can hear the theme song …..

Book Recommendation: The Secret Book of Flora Lea

Every once in a while a book on my “to read” list will sit on there a bit. Usually this is because I’ve read a negative review on Goodreads or maybe someone on one of the book related Facebook groups I belong to said they couldn’t finish it. I need to keep in mind that all book reviews (like music and humor) are subjective and that what I like, others may not and vice versa. That being said, I finally sat with The Secret Book of Flora Lea.

The thing that kept bringing me back to wanting to read it was the description listed on Goodreads and Amazon. There was something about the premise, the questions surrounding the mystery involved, and my curiosity about how it would end that kept peaking my interest.

Here is that Goodreads synopsis:

When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

A tagline for the book reads, “A world war and a fairy tail collide…” and in a way, they do. However, the war is merely the setting and the catalyst that sets the story in motion.

I found that I enjoyed this book more than I anticipated I would. I really connected with the characters and found myself feeling for them. Without giving you spoilers, let me give an example. I could not imagine living in a place that was being threatened by enemy attack and having the government telling me that I needed to send my children away to stay with some other family until it was safe. That tore me up!

As the story progresses you pick up pieces along the way from the past and present to help solve the mystery. The make believe land of Whisperwood was a story that was only shared between the two sisters, so you cannot help but wonder how another author wrote about it in great detail. You wonder if the author is really the sister. You wonder if the sister told the author the story. Maybe the sister told somebody who told somebody else, etc… I wanted to know!

Not so much a spoiler here, but I will tell you that one of the things I loved about this book was that shortly before the book is over, the mystery is solved only to bring about a second mystery which brings you to the conclusion of the book.

I really enjoyed this book. I went back and read some of the negative reviews again and I laughed. I had finished the book and these reviews were saying what they didn’t like about the book and I thought, “that couldn’t be farther from the truth” and “that’s being so nitpicky.” Lesson learned – let others opinions stand alone and don’t let them influence you.

Am I saying that you will love the book? I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I liked it and I feel that others, including you, might like it as well.

Friday Photo Flashback

On August 16, 1977, 47 years ago today, Elvis Presley died in Memphis, Tennessee. I was just 7 years old when he passed away, but I can recall how his passing hit my father and many others who grew up with his music and his legacy. As a kid, I knew Hound Dog, Teddy Bear, All Shook Up, and Don’t Be Cruel. It wasn’t until after he passed and as I began to dive deeper into his music that I came to appreciate his talent and why he was adored by his fans.

The first radio station I worked at (WKSG-FM, 102.7 Kiss-FM) was an oldies station, so I played my share of Elvis songs there. I played even more when I moved over to Honey Radio (WHND AM560) as they focused on early rock and roll. Discovering “new” Elvis music by playing unfamiliar (to me) songs on the radio only made me a bigger fan.

It was in the early 2000’s that I had the chance to go to Memphis on a radio trip. After we had finished our business at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in preparation for our radiothon, I had the opportunity to go to Graceland – Elvis’s home.

We had to wear these Walkman like headphones and carry a small device attached to them that allowed us to hear narration of the rooms and such on the tour. When we pulled up in front of the house I was surprised. It really doesn’t look as big as it does in the pictures.

Naturally, I had brought a camera, but the lighting within the house wasn’t that great for picture taking and there was a “No Flash Photography” rule on the tour. This was before we all carried around cameras on our phones. I had a camera with actual film in it that had to be developed. My photos came out dark or blurry. I was really upset by this.

The tour itself was really amazing. The various colors of the rooms, the 1977 appliances, the Jungle Room, the piano where Elvis played on the night he passed away, and the memorabilia had my brain overloading. One wall had gold records, awards, album covers and more line from floor to ceiling! Throughout the place were outfits from his movies and movie posters and various other things encased in glass. I was loving every second of my visit, snapping as many pictures as I could take and getting excited to show them to my dad when I developed them. And then, in an instant, I was silenced.

Full disclosure: the above photo is not mine. Mine came out blurry.

As you walk outside, you are almost at once in front of Elvis’ grave. The emotions that hit me were completely unexpected. I was overwhelmed to the point where I was almost in tears. I remember thinking, “Why am I almost crying? I never met Elvis before, yet I am overcome with feelings of sadness, wonder, and awe.” It was a humbling experience.

I had seen photos of the grave before, but now I was literally standing in front of it. There were flowers everywhere. It was beautiful. I stood there for quite a long time just lost in my thoughts and the moment. I had even forgot to press the button on the little audio thingy to hear this part of the tour.

As I think back to that moment, I really can’t explain what I was feeling or experiencing. It was surreal. It was like feeling a bunch of emotions all at once. There was respect and admiration as well as reverence and grief. Those few minutes at Graceland are certainly in my Top 5 “Most Complex” moments of my life.

There have since been some additions to the Graceland Graveyard since my visit. I wonder if it would hit me the same way if I were to go back.