Category: music

Mumbles … Fanatic

According to Merriam Webster a fanatic person is “a person who is extremely enthusiastic about and devoted to some interest or activity.”  Going from that definition, I would have to say at least in my teens and into early twenties I was a fanatic about music, going to concerts and most especially the Oak Ridge Boys.

I could tell you the names of the singers, band members and a large portion of the crew that toured with them.  I was a member of their fan club and in total have seen them over fifteen times easily.  Used to be I could recite all the shows and most of the dates they happened… I am getting old though and memory is a problem with fibro too so I can’t recall all of them so easily now.

What I was just talking to my boyfriend about is how a lot of the musicians of our youth are far from their youth now and that scares me.  No, it will not have the impact John Lennon or Elvis Presley’s deaths had on a generation but with all four singers in the ORB being 75 or more now I dread the day I hear that one has left this world.  I have already said my personal goodbyes to three men who used to be in the band… still miss them.

In the meantime, I will listen to their music, hope they come close enough for a concert (I don’t drive long distances like I used to due to anxiety issues on the road) and keep up to date with social media posts.  Is there someone you were (or still are) a fanatic about? 

(Here’s a video from back in the day… back when Skip, Steve and Don were still with us. May they all rest in peace.)

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Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – fanatic

It’s Not Unusual

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

My heart skips

It is not beating like is usually does

My head’s in the clouds

I am not thinking clearly as usual

I get butterflies in my stomach

But it’s not unusual

It’s the growth of a new love

Effecting every inch of me

And I wouldn’t trade it for the world

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Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – unusual

…as an added bonus –

Teenage Dreaming

Back in 1979 I was a teenager, barely. But I was typical… wanting to fall in love and having crushes left and right. I was also into music and the men that made it. So when this movie came on one night about a 13 year old falling for her crush (her rock star wanna be guitar teacher) I HAD TO see it.

To this day I still own the soundtrack album for that movie, Sooner or Later. What does that have to do with anything other than my budding emotional overloads thanks to musicians? A song. Rex Smith (who played the the girls crush, Michael) sang a number of songs for the LP that was released. With that great feathered hairdo, how could he go wrong as a heart throb! So of course, I own the LP and still know most of the songs by heart. This is where the connection comes to play.

One of the songs on the album was a song called, “Ain’t That Peculiar.” Looking for a video of the song I came to find that not only had Rex sang this song, but also so did Marvin Gaye and the group Fanny among others. So, here is the version that hooked me and then Marvin Gaye’s hit.

Isn’t he just dreamy?

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Written for Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) – Peculiar

No Big Dill

Mmm, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, oh, my Gma’s lime pickles!!!! Those altered cucumbers sure are tasty, but the first thing that came to mind with this prompt of Fandango’s was not any of those, it was a distant memory of a song. And this video explains the whole thing… kind of. Enjoy!

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For Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – pickle

A to Z Challenge – E is for Elvis

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”

Elivs Presley

When I decided to do quote I began searching for a lot of people that would be recognized with one name only… I hope people still know who Elvis is. Although. probably 15 years ago, when I was at a store I heard a couple of teenagers talking in the checkout lanes, pointing to a magazine with him on it and saying, “Who is that?” So undoubtably there are some out there in younger generations that don’t know. I did my part to introduce my daughter to all kinds of music and I know she knows who Elvis is… if she didn’t know him, I think my mom would haunt me for raising her wrong ha, ha, ha!

This quote is about truth and the fact you can never get away from it no matter what you try. That is something that can be hard to learn from time to time.

Here is one of his hits that broke all the girls hearts…

Past letters…

A B C D

A to Z Challenge – D is for Dylan

“Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.”

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is one of the great singer songwriters of the US. I wasn’t aware, until I looked for a quote, that he was born in Minnesota. At 80 he is still performing live and has dates coming up in Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma. His music is not just songs on his albums but he has written hundreds of songs that many other artists have covered. One of my favorites is Make You Feel My Love where he sings of doing anything to make his love interest feel his love. He is a wizard of words.

Past letters…

A B C

Our First Dance

Photo by Andres Ayrton on Pexels.com

The bass is so strong

You feel it in your stomach

Boom, boom, boom

The guitar rings out

A melody so sweet

Wah, wah, wah

The words like a poem

Echo through your head

“…free my soul…”

And you take me in your arms

My heart syncs with yours

Beat, beat, beat

For Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – beat

Mumbles … Variation

Appalachian Spring

I am sure you are getting tired of hearing this, but I love music, all kinds of music. When this word prompt came up my mind went back several years to my Music Appreciation class in college. There was one composer in particular that caught my attention – Aaron Copland. He was an American composer who did many great compositions.

One of the Copland’s pieces was “Variations on a Shaker Melody” from the Martha Graham ballet Appalachian Spring. In music a composer sometimes takes a theme or melody and will produce different versions of the melody thus creating a variation.

If you listen closely to “Variations on a Shaker Melody” you can hear the reoccurring theme or melody (in this case the shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”) many times. This ballet won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1945. I hope you enjoy this song.

Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – variation

A Hard Pill To Swallow

“One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small and the ones that Mother gives you don’t do anything at all…”

White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane

The red one makes me sleepy

The blue one keeps me sane

The round one calms me down

The square one is for sneezes

The oval one drops cholesterol

And the gel ones are just vitamins

But that is just the starting point

I have more shapes and sizes

I take a half of this dose

If I want to stay awake

But only a quarter of this pill

To calm my nervous shakes

The pain pill and muscle relaxers

They help me sleep at night

Then there are the eye drops

That keep my vision on track

A nasal spray and an inhaler

Help me breath both night and day

And there is more here on the table

Their names I couldn’t pronounce

There is six at night and four in the morning

Plus those extras in between

Medicine to cure what ails me

To actually live without them

Oh what a wonderful dream

A trippy little video for White Rabbit

Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – medicine