More Rambling...and Ultrarunning

Can't believe it's been 4 years since I posted about Rock Music, Rambling...and Ultrarunning, here.

Here's the lead-in to that post, which you really, really should go read right now.

As I continue to love my car's Sirius XM Radio, I've noticed a recurring theme for some some rockers from the period/genre of Classic Rock (60s and 70s).  They tend to romanticize the stereotypical artistic, footloose antihero, imbued with wanderlust so as not to dilute the power of their music.  

That post featured Free Bird, Rambling Man, Heard it in a Love Song, and Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.  Well, diligent detective work had uncovered two more classic rock songs about Rambling:

Ramble On (Led Zepplin)
Ramble On, And now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song. 
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way. 
I've been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On, 
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.


Midnight Rambler (Rolling Stones)
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Everybody got to go?
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
The one that shut the kitchen door?

The link to Ultrarunning?  As I previously posted, it is simply this: maybe we get our vicarious rambling jones out of the way via trail running, so we can be happy and secure in our personal relationships and not feel the need to roam.

Green Tambourine

From time to time, as a public service, Mister Tristan (the blog, not the 7 year old human being) will present a brief lesson on musical instrument history.

Today is your lucky day.

While driving and listening to Sirius XM Radio recently, the bride and I heard an tune on the Classic Vinyl channel that brought back high school memories.  This 1967 hit, Green Tambourine, from the Lemon Pipers "...  has been credited as being the first bubblegum pop chart-topper" (per the YouTube blurb).  It was catchy, but as the bride always says, "I prefer screaming, like Creedence or The Animals."

If embed does not play, here's the link.




But while it wasn't our cup of tea, this piece of music provides a teachable moment.  What most people don't know about this tune is that while the color of the tambourine in the music video is indeed green, the song is actually a music insider's joke--a not-so-subtle reference to the Green Tambourine Company of Terre Haute, IN.  At the time, Green was (and still is) the nation's premiere maker of orchestral quality tambourines.

It's analogous to having a Stradivarius violin, Martin Guitar, or a Tama or Gretch drum kit...only think of having a Green Tambourine.

Now go back and enjoy the clip again--I can't--for what I have told you is a total fabrication.  See, I gave up playing the tambourine in high school, but I know that if I had just stuck with it, I could have been playing sold-out stadiums by now.  So you understand my bitterness toward the instrument, whoever the hell really makes it.

Bopping Around in my Minivan

The other day when I was driving my Sienna minivan--that some would call the essence of suburbia--the Who came on the Classic Vinyl channel of my Sirius XM radio, singing We Won't Get Fooled Again (link is here if the embed doesn't play):



I immediately did some cranking: cranked down the window, cranked up the air conditioning (it was 85 F outside), and cranked up the volume to DEAFENING.  Oh, and sang at the top of my lungs.

Passing motorists must have thought I was nuts.  Perhaps I am.

Then I thought about what other classic tunes I would do the same for.  One that immediately came to mind was this gem from Steppenwolf (again, link here if the embed playeth not):





As above, the routine is to crank thusly:

--Window: DOWN
--Air conditioning: UP
--Volume: DEAFENING
--Singing: WITH ALL I HAVE

With the presidential primary circus ongoing, my confidence in the political system coming up with a leader who truly puts the people first rather than "the establishment" is pretty much nil.

So, heed the words of The Who above:

There's nothing in the streets 

Looks any different to me 

And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye 

And the parting on the left 

Are now parting on the right 

And the beards have all grown longer overnight 

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution 

Take a bow for the new revolution 

Smile and grin at the change all around 

Pick up my guitar and play 

Just like yesterday 

Then I'll get on my knees and pray 

We don't get fooled again 

Don't get fooled again 

No, no!

J. Geils Band Grammar Fail

Since my recent rant about no trespassing signs that read "Posted" (link here), I may as well dump on a rock band's butchering of the English language as well.

I'm talking about the J. Geils Band and their classic rock tune, Must of Got Lost.  My Sirius XM Radio was conveniently playing this the other day for my listening pleasure:




If the embedded video playeth not, here's the link.

Of course, the grammatical error is that it should read Must Have Got Lost.  Or if you really want to go full grammar police, Must Have Gotten Lost.

But then if I had the band's money I could burn mine, so what do I know.

Ed Note: I should point out that later iterations of the lyrics found on the web use the word Musta or Must've, which are perfectly OK, but the earlier versions of the title and lyrics use the word of.

We Can Be Heroes, Just for One Day...and Ultrarunning

After several years--indeed, the love affair has only intensified--I rely mightily on my Sirius XM Radio for musical enjoyment and inspiration.

Just today I heard a David Bowie song--Heroes--that I had not heard for some time. The passage of time enabled me to hear it from an Ultrarunner's perspective.

I think it probably hits on one of the key precepts of why we run these vast distances: we can be heroes.  We have our everyday lives, but for one day, when we don the mantle of an Ultrarunner--we can be heroes.  We could be set apart from every other human being on the planet.



This tune is so not at all about athletic achievement, but I think of it in that way anyway.  The music and the main lyric are so catchy:
  
     We can be heroes
     Just for one day.

If that day is our day, the day when "suddenly it is all as easy as a bird in flight," then we can achieve distances or times that were formerly unimaginable.

Like when I cracked the 24 hour barrier for 100 miles at Umstead in 2010, when--seriously--all I was hoping for was to finish.

You all have your stories, I am sure, of the day when you were a hero, if just for one day.

 

AWOL on the Appalachian Trail, Part 2

Here's another post about David Miller's book, AWOL on the Appalachian Trail.

I posted about it last week here, and got sidetracked into a rant about nicknames.

Anyway, I basically forgot to comment upon the book itself, so let me correct that here by saying this was a wonderful read, two big thumbs-up.  The book was quite hard to put down, and I marked a number of passages in my Kindle that I wanted to remember or use here at Mister Tristan (the blog, not the 3-year-old human being).

Anyway, AWOL is staying at a hostel early in his hike called the Sunnybank Inn, where the owner, Elmer explains over dinner to the hikers that every night they come up with a question and bat it around the table to hear everyone's answer.

That night's question was "If you could choose one musical group or artist to eliminate--it would be as if their music never existed--who would you choose?"

AWOL doesn't list any of the responses, but I have mine.  Keeping mind that I grew up in the Classic Rock era of the 60s, and that's the music I still love today, here are my thoughts:

• Elton John
• Steve Miller Band
• Led Zeppelin

The last one may seem odd, but whenever I go my CD library, I never think, "You know, some Led Zeppelin would sound pretty good right now."  And as for Steve Miller and Elton John, when a tune comes on the Sirius XM radio, I just flip to another channel.

 

Rock Music, Rambling...and Ultrarunning

As I continue to love my car's Sirius XM Radio, I've noticed a recurring theme for some some rockers from the period/genre of Classic Rock (60s and 70s).  They tend to romanticize the stereotypical artistic, footloose antihero, imbued with wanderlust so as not to dilute the power of their music. 

Oh, and also they sing about it.  To wit:

Free Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

But, if I stayed here with you, girl
Things just couldn't be the same
'Cause I'm as free as a bird now
And this bird, you'll can not change

Rambling Man (Allman Brothers)

When it's time for leaving, I hope you'll understand
That I was born a rambling man

Heard it in a Love Song (Marshall Tucker Band)

I'm gonna be leaving
At the break of dawn
Wish you could come
But I don't need no woman tagging along

Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (Bob Seger)

I ain't around to love you now, and I gotta run
Gotta keep moving, never gonna slow down
You can have your funky world, see you 'round

Must be tough to have to forgo all those potentially entangling relationships just to stay free to do music, and, well, to ramble. 

Whenever--rarely--I use the word "ramble" with respect to me, or if the bride does so, what we mean is that I am babbling, talking on and on and on.  I never use it to express a need to roam so as not to be stifled.

I guess the link to Ultrarunning is that maybe we get our vicarious rambling jones out of the way via trail running, so we can be happy and secure in our personal relationships and not feel the need to roam.

Videos follow for your listening pleasure....

And a very gray-haired Bob Seger....

More Sirius/XM Radio: The Coffeehouse

A couple weeks back I was listening to XM channel 31, The Coffeehouse, during a work road trip to Pittsburgh.  The are self-described as playing acoustic, singer-songwriter tunes.

Usually I listen to Classic Vinyl, plus the 60s and 70s channels, but that day I was more interested in the wistful, the painful, the playful, and the bittersweet, and opted for 6 solid hours of The Coffeehouse.  I was rewarded by a thoughtful blend of passionate and expressive lyrics, with emphasis on the intellectual rather than the visceral.

As a result I'm now a committed Edie Brickell fan, and have even bought her latest album (simply called, Edie Brickell) for my iPod.  I can’t get enough of Waiting for Me, a catchy, perky tune that keeps playing in my head.  I was unsuccessful at snagging a clip of it, although you can find it on the iTunes site as a preview.

Next trip, my mood may well be quite different, and classic rock will float my boat.  That's the beauty of music--you can always find a style to match your mood.

 

More Sirius/XM Radio: the Flute

I posted here about musical instruments used back in the 60s that you just don't hear much anymore in today's music.  I focused on the organ, harpsichord, and the tambourine.

Today's forgotten instrument is the flute:

Heard it in a Love Song (Marshall Tucker Band )

Pied Piper (Crispian St. Peters)

And of course, Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull, around 4:40 for the flute work).

The Marshall Tucker song often is in my head while I run easy trails. As a feminist, however, I am torn between the excellent music versus the misogynistic lyrics.  Nevertheless, enjoy!

 

More XM Radio..."Old" Musical Instruments

I find myself listening largely to the 60s channel (conveniently, this is located on Channel 6), because this is the musical period in which I first came of age.

I keep noticing the usage of three particular musical instruments that you rarely hear in today's music: the organ, the tambourine, and the harpsichord.  Here are 3 classic examples of tunes from the 60s utilizing these instruments:

1.  Organ: look no further than the Doors, and the keyboard artistry of Ray Manzarek.  Just about any tune of theirs will do for an example, but the iconic example has to be Light My Fire.

2.  Tambourine: What else but Green Tambourine by The Lemon Pipers?

3.  Harpsichord:  How about Scarborough Fair by Simon + Garfunkel (with the added bonus that the YouTube link is from the movie The Graduate)?  Or Vanity Fare, with great harpsichord in Early in the Morning?

While I'm on the subject of XM Radio, sometimes I tune in The Coffee House Channel 51).  I just gotta ask--because it seems that every other song is by him--who the h*ll is Jack Johnson????

 

More XM Radio...and Ultrarunning

The Ultrarunning content is at the end, relating to this video.



Wednesday on the way in to work we had a carpool snafu. While I had been expecting to be a passenger (and snoozing!) for the 1-hour trip, I wound up unexpectedly driving alone because the other driver thought I was not coming in, and our other two people were out as well.

XM Radio assuaged my troubled psyche by serving up a plethora of "sing-along songs" on the 60s channel. Here's a partial list:

Red Rubber Ball (Cyrcle)
98.6 (Keith)
Soul Deep (Boxtops)
She's Not There (Zombies)
Hello Goodbye (Beatles)
Woodstock (Crosby, Stills, Nash + Young)
My Girl (Temptations)
California Dreamin' (Mama and Papas)

My throat became sore from singing (I do not subject my carpool mates to singing, which is reserved for only when I am alone).

Oh, and the Ultrarunning connection?  Thursday when I ran Harshman Road at daybreak, the morning sun was shining like a red rubber ball.  I have to look up the atmospheric physics of that phenomenon, but we've all seen it and it's a striking effect.  Plus I was also thinking, how many people in our circle of acquaintances are ever deliberately on foot and outside when the sun rises?  Not many, I'd venture to say.  Great great day to be alive and running.

Sing-Along Songs...and Ultrarunning

As I did here, theme for today is sing-along songs.

After my free subscription ran out, I went ahead and signed up for continuing service from Sirius/XM Radio--well worth the $$ for me.  Without further ado, here are today's offerings:

--Touch Me (Doors)
--Behind Blue Eyes (Who)
--Daydream Believer (Monkees)
--American Pie (Don McLean)
--Devil With a Blue Dress On (Mitch Ryder)
--I Fooled Around and Fell in Love (Elvin Bishop)
--Our House (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)...which I will try to embed below, but my blogging mojo seems to be cursed when it comes to embedding YouTube videos.  This video is cool, because--in keeping with the theme--it contains an audience sing-along at the end:




As I wrote before, I never take any music devices along when I run, but can easily conjure up these tunes from memory when I need a music fix while running.  I'll lustily belt out these tunes as though I were on Broadway--provided I am alone--and the miles just fly by.

 

Sirius/XM Radio: (Un)healthy Relationships

I've previously posted (here, here, here and here) on how much I am loving my Sirius/XM radio service that came as a free trial with a new vehicle.

Those posts were on the fun side; today's is a bit more serious.

Being born in the middle of the post-WWII baby boom, my musical tastes run mostly to classic rock of the 60s and 70s.  Two of my favs, which are pretty iconic rock anthems, are:

     Bad Company:  Feel Like Making Love
     Foghat:  I Just Want to Make Love to You

However, it finally dawned on me recently just how awful these lyrics are: both use the preposition TO rather than WITH, as in “making love to you,” rather than “making love with you.”

How is that possible? Making love “to” somebody implies dominance, control, a lack of free agency on the part of the recipient, etc. Making love “with” somebody implies a mutually agreeable, consensual activity undertaken as equals.

Maybe I’m reading far too much into lyrics that were penned decades ago, under personal and cultural circumstances that I know nothing about. Perhaps I am being too harsh. But words do matter, and I would not want a guy to have this sort of sexual viewpoint concerning one of the women in my family (or any woman, for that matter).

OK, moving on to Linda Ronstadt. Over the past couple days Sirius/XM radio happened to have served up a major dose of LR, whose music I have always adored. Along the lines of words matter, I began to speculate on her song You’re No Good, another classic.

That must have been one dysfunctional relationship. In this single song she disses some guy no fewer than 20 times, telling him repeatedly that he’s no good. Ouch! 

(Note that there are another 8 instances of the lyric "you’re no good" which are about the singer: “I broke a heart that's gentle and true…I wouldn't blame him if he said to me…You’re no good etc.)

Let’s end on a happier note. Lest we think that LR only sings about dysfunctional relationships, I also heard Different Drum, yet another iconic classic. Although it’s about a breakup, sounds like a healthy breakup to me.

Still More Sirius/XM Radio...and Ultrarunning

I am really loving having this radio! See Monday's post for thoughts about musical royalty, here, or just scroll down a day.

The theme for today is Sing-Along Songs.  Just in today's drive home (which is a 1-hour proposition), I jotted down several songs that I just could not help but sing along to:

--98.6 (Keith)
--Won't Get Fooled Again (Who)
--I Can't Help Myself (Four Tops--you may recognize it better from one of  the lyrics, actually what I thought the title was: "Sugarpie Honeybunch")
--Mister Tambourine Man (Byrds)
--Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
--House of the Rising Sun (Animals)
--Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash)

It's obvious that I dial up to the Classic Vinyl station.

I don't take any music devices along when I run, but can easily conjure up these tunes from memory when I need a music fix while running.

Even More Sirius/XM Radio

As I mentioned in a couple previous posts (here and here), I recently bought a new minivan and it came with a 3-month free subscription to Sirius/XM radio.

Having posted on "spelling songs" I should mention that discussion of the tune Respect by Aretha Franklin (YouTube is here) generated some discussion of her being referred to as the Queen of Soul.  While I don't dispute the title, it made me wonder, "Who is the King of Soul?"  While I know that James Brown is the Godfather of Soul, who then are the King and the Godmother of soul?

We needed a matrix or a spreadsheet to keep track of all this music royalty.  I should tell you that this particular discussion took place at a wine tasting at the Adams County Winery in PA, so perhaps the talk was somewhat propelled by the fruit of the vine.

At any rate, here's what we came up with:

Queen of Soul:  Aretha Franklin
King of Soul:  ??

Godmother of Soul:  ??
Godfather of Soul:  James Brown

Queen of Pop:  ??
King of Pop:  Michael Jackson

Queen of Rock:  ??
King of Rock:  Elvis Presley

Queen of Blues:  ??
King of Blues:  BB King (maybe)

The Queen:  ??
The King:  Elvis Presley

Looks like we need more queens.  Somebody brought up Queen Latifah, but we just didn't know how to categorize her.

 

More Sirius/XM Radio

As I mentioned in a previous post last Wed, I recently bought a new minivan and it came with a 3-month free subscription to Sirius/XM radio.

On Channel 46, Classic Vinyl, I just heard Gloria (as in G-L-O-R-I-A).  The version I heard was by Shadows of Knight, although Wikipedia tells me that it was written by Van Morrison and originally recorded by his band at the time, Them.  It's been notably covered also by Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Rick Springfield, R.E.M., Rickie Lee Jones, plus others.  YouTube of the Van Morrison version is here.

Hearing Gloria made me think of other "spelling" songs, such as Respect by Aretha Franklin.  That YouTube is here.

The bride then contributed to the discussion by suggesting Lola, by the Kinks.  YouTube here.

Then somebody mentioned ABC by the Jackson 5, and the conversation was basically over.

 

Sirius/XM Radio

Recently bought a new minivan and it came with a 3-month free subscription to Sirius/XM radio.

I'm loving Channel 46, Classic Vinyl, and the Sixties (Channel 6).  I also note that there is a Golf channel and a NASCAR channel, and I cannot for the life of me imagine how they fill those airwaves up 24/7 since these are not Real Sports, right?

Haven't yet found the Ultrarunning channel yet but I'm still spinning the dial.  Maybe it'll turn up.  Hey, a broadcast of a 100 miler would fill a whole day!  Hardrock would take 2 days!

Today I was listening to the 60s channel and a song by the Foundations came up, "Build Me Up Buttercup" although the display on my radio dial truncated the song title.  It simply read : "Build Me Up Butt". 

Offered without additional comment, other than I blew coffee out my nose.  Good thing I opted for the fabric treatment on the upholstery.

Couldn't embed the YouTube, so that URL is here.  I had no idea the Foundations were a black group.  Neither could I have named the group, although I probably knew all the lyrics.