“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.
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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 