“It’s that time of day, when you can say, ‘Head for the….beach, not mountains.'” (No Busch in my house, thank you!) It’s midweek Friday, time to put on your thinking caps and trot out the old (or new) saws for everyone’s reading pleasure. I really, really wanted to get away from feel-good stories, was looking for a good sci-fi type offering–even had the germ of an idea float by. Float? Beach? 🙂
Then my mind was overtaken, hijacked even, by not one, but many flashes from the past. I admit; I succumbed. As Boz Scaggs once sang on his Silk Degrees album (CD these days):
What can I say
What can I do
Three a.m. It’s me again
And wouldn’t you know
Things would have to end this way
That’s what I’m talkin’ about. You’ll see.
Medley
We took the last train to Clarksville,( ‘cause we’d been California dreamin’), and a big yellow taxi to the beach. The fog looked like smoke on the water. The morning sun was shining like a red rubber ball.
Ignoring the beach boys, I spied a long, cool woman. (No black dress!!) Now I’m a believer!
My wife protested, “But we were happy together.”
I retorted, “We had a good thing, baby. I know it’s kind of a drag, but I was born to be wild. Let’s live for today.”
She swung the green tambourine like Serena. Everything’s a purple haze.
***********************************************
Can you find all the song titles? There are fourteen plus one group name. If you didn’t grow up in the 60’s. don’t remember the British invasion and all that not-jazz-but-rock-and-roll and didn’t see the Beatles for the first time on Ed Sullivan, you may refer to this page of 60’s song titles to see where I came from. It’s not a definitive list (“Red Rubber Ball” is shockingly missing) but most of what I used came from it or from my memories: http://largeflowerheads.com/id52.html.
It’s been suggested that I have a playlist, so here it is:
Last Train to Clarksville…..The Monkees
California Dreamin’…..The Mamas and Papas
Big Yellow Taxi….Joni Mitchell
Smoke on the Water….Deep Purple
Red Rubber Ball….The Cyrkle
Group–The Beach Boys
Long Cool Woman….The Holllies
Now I’m a Believer….The Monkees
Happy Together….The Turtles
Good Thing….Paul Revere and the Raiders
Kind of a Drag….The Buckinghams
Born to be Wild….Steppenwolf
Live for Today….The Grass Roots
Green Tambourine….The Lemon Pipers
Person–Serena Williams (not the 60’s, I know, but…)
Purple Haze…Jimi Hendrix
This, that and the other thing 
I think I sing that sometimes.
Yes, but only about three words of any one song. 🙂
Oh I love this…I think I spotted a few. Great take on the prompt
Thanks, Boomie. If you go to the link, you can find most of them if you want to go to the trouble.
janet
Sorry I didn’t make it, couldn’t swing by, I was up on cripple creek, then had to take shelter from the storm, ..brilliant …unique stuff actually! Am amazed!
Nice response. You light up my life and make me a daydreamin’ believer. 🙂
Dear Janet,
No need for me to look them up, Janet. I recognized them all. It’s actually tricky to do a story like this and do it well. “I should’ve known she’d bid me farewell, there’s a lesson to be learned from this and I’ve learned it very well…” Now I’ve got the song running through my head. Nice one,
Shalom,
Rochelle
I know that entire song by heart, not that it’s that long but it is very catchy. I’m always a bit amazed (or frightened) by how many songs from that era I seem to know. How about “Secret Agent Man?” That’s another catchy one.
And now you know you’re not the only starfish in the sea!
janet
If I never hear your name again it’s all the same to meeeeee.
And I think it’s gonna be all right. Yes, the worst is over now. The morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball.
🙂
80s baby got em without looking, rock on!
Nice incorporation of songs as the story, very fun
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I had so many other songs I wanted to include, but…
janet
Okay, definitely a baby boomer..musician too or just a fan? Either way, Last Train to Clarkesville is stuck in my head the guitar riff even more so than the words.
That’s OK, I have “Red Rubber Ball” stuck in mine. 🙂 I love that old music. As for musician, I played the clarinet and piano at one time, then kept on with the piano, but not rock. I sing with our church praise team now.
I’m just a fan. I enjoy live music, any live music whenever I can. Sing out loud!
I recognized all of them, and I still have the “new car smell”. Perhaps Cullin just “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
Very creative.
Nice to meet you and read your story, thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked my story.
janet
that had to hurt. especially with the steroids she’s taking. well done. and well punned.
Thanks, Rich. It was a lot of fun, but took some doing to make it flow smoothly yet get in as many titles as possible.
i proudly know every reference too. yay me.
That says something about our age as well as our musical acumen. 🙂 One day at Half Price Books, they were putting out CD’s of “The Best of 196-“, about four of them. I snatched them all and keep them in the van for times when I need a lift. I sing along with most of them, too!!
there’s a radio station near atlantic city called WIBG that plays a lot of that music. when i’m not at the shore, i listen to it from their website.
wow I believe there are about ten songs in this one piece or at least that is how many my mind conjured up from the cobwebs of the basement of my mind. 🙂 smoke on the water is now going through my head..wonderful, endeavour Jan!! thank you for sharing (and reminding me of some wonderful music)
There are fourteen, Len. “Smoke on the Water” brings back lots of good memories from college with my friend, Al, who was a music fanatic and my best friend. Just thinking of all those songs makes me want to go dancing!
I agree , darn I missed four but that is ok the memories are flowing and yes let us dance!!!!
I could light a Mars Bonfire but I hear heavy metal thunder..But who’ll stop the rain… I’ll skip a few decades cause this is hot hot hot and there is no need to be playing with fire…
Nice job.
Tom
🙂
Amusing and original. Enjoyed the trip. 🙂
Maybe not as much fun as barging, but still enjoyable. Thanks.
The story felt like a musical rendition when I was reading but never imagined of having hidden 14 titles. That’s so unique and wonderfully told!
Thanks very much. It’s been suggested that I have a playlist, so I think I’ll add that at the end.
janet
this was very good indeed:)
Now there’s an original take on things. I got most of them, I think. 🙂
Brilliant idea, using the song titles. Should have a playlist maybe?
Good idea, Bjorn. I’ll do that shortly.
janet
Great story! I recognize and love every one of these songs!
Thanks, Jan. I’d love to be able to link all the sound tracks!!
I totally love the unique direction you took this in. Awesome work!
Thank you very much! I appreciate your time and compliments. 🙂
janet
Awww… The Buckinghams! You are going to make me get a penny for the needle are and dust off some vinyl 🙂
Darned auto-correct thingy. That should me “arm!”
Yikes! “be!”
🙂
Kind of drag, isn’t it? Love those old groups.
janet
Very clever, Janet… but, I think you were too young when they were first played on the radio to remember first hand. No matter, any girl who can quote Boz Skaggs has my heart.
Nice compliment, Ted, although untrue. A friend and I made “guitars” out of 45’s and those long fireplace matches and strummed to The Monkees. In college, a friend and I went to see Boz Skaggs in Omaha. I’d never heard of him, although Barry had. It was a great concert.
That was so fun!!! Creative take on the prompt 🙂
Thanks, Hayley. Glad you enjoyed it. I really planned something grim, but this prevailed. Got to go with the muse. 🙂
janet
I see what you did there, (I’m older than I think I am).
Aren’t many of us? 🙂
Hahah – this is great! Sounds like another Pleasant Valley Sunday… I love the Monkees and now I have all these fun songs in my head!
Me, too, and I can’t get them out. But I’m OK with that!! Thanks for stopping by and singing with me.
janet
la la la la la la, dee didy dee, dee diddy, dum, a booga boo boo, abooga boo boo, lalalalala….And the beat goes on….dadada da and my rubber ball comes bouncing back to me….Very good idea, Janet. My head is still singing on. I got most of them. I’m a a sixties girl from way back to high school (graduated in 1965) You forgot the “yellow submarine.” It was a Beatles song and really cool!!
I had a lot more songs but no more words!! I could have easily done another 100 or so.
I bet. I just loved the sixties music. My husband and I still have favorite 33 rpms and casett tapes of them. We loved playing them all the time decades after we ‘grew up’. 🙂 If you remember The Lettermen. They were a favorite group of ours, The Beach Boys, Frankie Avalon, The Temptations, The Supremes, etc. etc.
Herman’s Hermits, Guess Who, Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
🙂 And the list goes on. Do you think this mutual interest we have in the sixties music dates us? Ha Ha. Oh, well. One never really grows up, maybe after all. We just grow older.
Yes, it does. And I’m OK with that. Only our outsides grow older!
Now, that was an enjoyable stroll down memory lane. Maybe we should do a theme contest sometime. Movie titles, TV deceives, Westerns, and female mud wrestlers (just kidding ) 🙂
Crap, I’m going to have to learn to proofread. It should read TV detectives.
I was just trying to figure out what you meant and laughing to myself. 🙂
Hi Janet,
Do you sing in the shower? Do you still have an album collection (not CDs)? Like you I listen to the music (Doobie Bros) and I’ve got the music in me (Kiki Dee) 🙂 Ron
I mostly sing on the van, but…same idea. I even have some 45’s. 🙂
Though i couldn’t relate with the songs you ref. i enjoyed the story no less. Well done Janet!
Thanks, Charles. Hopefully, since the titles were there, you could at least see where I was coming from. Thanks for reading and commenting.
janet
Great–I loved all the song titles, and not a one of them seemed forced. Ah, the memories of my youth! Good job.
Here’s mine: http://unexpectedpaths.com/friday-fictioneers/and-when-we-go-back-to-the-sea/
Glad you enjoyed it. I’m just getting started with my day, so I’ll be getting to the rest of the stories later.
Hope your day’s wonderful.
janet
That’s very innovative!
I wasn’t around in the 60s but I quite like your medley! 🙂
Thanks for coming by, Parul, and for commenting. I hope the song list helped and thanks to Bjorn for suggesting I put it there.
janet
Surf City, Here We Come! What a fun piece, but I only hope no developer looks at that beach and decides to pave paradise and put up a parking lot …
You got that exactly right, Perry. I’m enjoying all the song responses to this piece and glad it’s hitting the right chord. 🙂
janet
Clever story, Janet! I bet that was fun to write. I got 7 of the tracks/band names, which I don’t think is bad considering I was born in the 70s! I do like to listen to a bit of Deep Purple now and then. 😉
Glad you enjoyed, it Joanna, and your score’s not bad at all for a whippersnapper! 🙂
Hehe, thanks for that! 😉
I can only claim to know the Beach boys and Monkees refernce. Sounds like thew wife will need the taxi a bit longer.
This music whore loves your story. I’m with Rich, I’m proud to say I know every song you referenced. 😉
Good for you! I had so many more I would have like to include but those pesky 100-words cut me short. May be just as well for all of you. 🙂 But it was a lot of fun to write.
It was certainly fun to read.
I’ve been waiting to comment that “I’m workin’ my way back to you, babe, to read your story.”. Now that I think of it, you would have been the perfect person for it. Drat! 🙂
Aw I love the reference.
I knew all those songs without your list! Shows my age!
Mine, too, but that’s OK. We’re not getting older, we’re getting better. Or maybe both. 🙂
But not mellower. At least, me. I haven’t mellowed!
I’ve mellowed in some areas where I needed to do so but not in all areas.
I knew the Monkees, The Beach Boys and Jimi but the rest are new top me. Oh I forgot I started singing California Dreaming in my head when I read the line. Creatively done. Nice job.
Thanks! And I say to everyone I have read yet, “I keep workin’ my way back to you, babe.” 🙂
Very clever and excellent fun – and a proper story too! Shows you must have worked hard to get it to all make sense. Well done!
Thanks very much, Anne, for dropping by and for the compliment. The hard part was getting as many titles in as possible, yet having the story flow properly. I’m glad it succeeded.
Oh wow. So clever. It must have taken ages to work in the titles and make it flow. Love it.
Thanks for coming by, Sarah, It’s from a different era but you light up my life for doing so. 🙂
Now that you have a backlog of titles, we’ll be looking for a sequel or two–fun post!
Thanks. It was fun to write, so I’m glad it’s enjoyable to read. I’ll have to start working on another one and wait for the right picture…or just stash the titles away and wait.
Good work! A real trip down memory lane, although the Red Rubber Ball version I remembered was by The Seekers. Twelve out of fourteen – thanks!
I probably just grabbed the first link/group I saw, since I don’t remember the group even through I remember the entire song. Thanks for coming over.
janet
Really, really, really good, Janet! Thanks for the memories.
My pleasure, Sandra.
Brilliant Janet, was singing along with you line by line. Must have been so difficult to work all those songs in, well done. Thanks for the trip down memory lane 🙂
The hard parts were deciding which songs to use and then adding just enough other words to make the story flow and not sound stilted. It was lots of fun.
yes, I too, found myself singing each line. this was a fun ride!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Very cool story. Glad I recognized a lot of them
Me, too, since there might be a quiz later. 🙂 Glad you had fun with it, too.
This is brilliant! I love how you integrated the song titles!
Thanks very much!! It was fun to write.
What a fun approach! You’v’e got me doing a little California Dreamin’, too. Perfect for a winter’s day. 🙂
It’s also inspired some oldies comments. 🙂
That was really fun. Found most of the titles before I cheated.
There’s no cheating; only fun.
I found all but 2; I found all the ones I knew.
Good job!
Scott
Way to go, Scott. I hope you had as much fun finding them as I did writing the story.
janet
So, my guitar only missed about a half a note. I love how you integrated all the music into the story and still came up with a story. Well played (get it?)… I tip my musical hat to you, as I much enjoyed hearing every song as I read it on the screen lol. Bravo!
Hearing them all in your head as you read is like scanning for a radio station–a bit of song here, then another and another. Thanks for playing along and your punny comment. 🙂
janet
Janet,
Excellent! It seems so seamless. It’s amazing how you connected all the songs together. What a clever idea, and it worked well with the photo!
Amy
Thanks, Amy. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
janet
groovy story…and everybody said all that needs to said so, peace and love…<3
Peace out, Sunshine! 🙂 Thanks for dropping by my pad and commenting.
janet
it was way groovy..,:p
fun! the beach boys was a group-not the song, but maybe i missed it-trying to get thru 250 emails. thanks for the memories1 beebeesworld
Good luck with those emails, Beebee. Thanks for reading my story with all that on your plate.
Touche! Nicely done, Janet!
Thanks.