Down in the Sand

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

Sorry I've been a bit absent this week ~ it's month end at work, plus I have been a busy social butterfly. I will get to your comments on previous posts in a bit. Today for Jim's Song Lyric Sunday he asks for songs about the beach to celebrate National Beach Day. I have always lived close to a coast: New York, New Jersey, Southern California, and even in Chicago I was right on the shore of Lake Michigan, which counts too. That said, I don't spend much time at the beach, though it's nice to know it's there. 

Grease (1978) is one of my favorite musical movies, and one of the songs I love is "Summer Nights," which is told in a he said/ she said style about how Danny and Sandy met at the beach. Their friends join in to ask questions about the relationship. It begins in a sweet way and then heats up, just like a summer's day.

Summer loving had me a blast

Summer loving happened so fast

I met a girl crazy for me

Met a boy cute as can be

[...]

She swam by me, she got a cramp

He ran by me, got my suit damp

I saved her life, she nearly drowned

He showed off, splashing around

Summer sun, something's begun

But ah! Oh, the summer nights

Well-a, well-a, well-a, huh

[...]

He got friendly, holding my hand

Well, she got friendly down in the sand

He was sweet, just turned eighteen

Well, she was good, you know what I mean

[...]

Sandy was supposedly moving away at the end of the summer, so they said goodbye and exchanged their "true love vows," though apparently not phone numbers. Sandy didn't end up moving and instead showed up at Danny's high school. When their classmates asked about their summer, they told the story song "Summer Nights," giving details of their romance. Of course, they both had different viewpoints. Whose do you believe? I tend to go with Sandy's version. After the song ends, they realize they're at the same school and shenanigans ensue. Nothing like this would happen today because Danny and Sandy would be madly texting each other all along.

Enjoy the full song here.

Lyrics from Musixmatch. Songwriting credits to Jim Jacobs / Warren Casey.

Where My Rosemary Goes

Colorful music notes from Pixabay 

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim asks us for a spicy song… I mean a song that mentions a spice. I think rosemary counts because people use it to add flavor to food. This is what Google says:

“Rosemary [...] is a fragrant evergreen shrub with needle-like leaves native to the Mediterranean region. It features blue, purple, pink, or white flowers, belongs to the mint family, and is widely used for culinary flavoring, aromatic oils, and ornamental landscaping." 

So, it’s a spice, yay! Oh wait…

I also discovered that rosemary is technically an herb, not a spice, "because it consists of the fresh or dried green, needle-like leaves of a woody shrub in the mint family. In culinary terms, people often group it with general seasonings or 'spices,' but botanically herbs come from leaves while spices come from roots, bark, seeds, or fruits."

OK, then. Not really a spice, but whatever, too late now. 

This is what Edison Lighthouse says about rosemary:

She ain't got no money

Her clothes are kinda funny

Her hair is kinda wild and free

Oh, but love grows

Where my Rosemary goes

And nobody knows like me

Aww, I guess that's nice, in a sort of backhanded compliment kind of way. "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was written by Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason* and released in 1970. These guys were not members of the British pop band Edison Lighthouse (formerly Greenfield Hammer), however; the members were Tony Burrows (lead vocalist), Stuart Edwards (lead guitar), David Taylor (bass guitar), George Weyman (drums), and Ray Dorey (guitar).

She talks kinda lazy

And people say she's crazy

And her life's a mystery

Oh, but love grows

Where my Rosemary goes

And nobody knows like me

Thank gawd she has these guys singing a ballad at her, since no one else seems to like her. Geez. The reason I really like this song is because I named one of the main characters in a novel Rosemary, but like most of my ambitious writing projects, it fizzled out. Well, not totally: it ended up as a long short story in my Sidewalk Noodles book, but poor Rosemary gets only two mentions there, so not exactly a main character any longer, is she?

There's something about

Her hand holding mine

It's a feeling that's fine

And I just gotta say, hey!

She's really got a magical spell

And it's working so well

That I can't get away

So she's like a witch? Lyrics from Genius. Listen to the whole song here, if you like.

*This is really weird, but today (Thursday) I saw another one of Fandango's "loosely based" posts and decided I would write one of my song fiction posts on Tom Jones' song "Delilah" combined with the Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah," and just now when I looked up the writers of "Love Grows," I found out that Barry Mason also wrote "Delilah." Mind blown! Anyway, you, dear reader, are not going to see this fascinating paragraph until Sunday morning, as that's when we schedule our posts for Jim's SLS, but tonight (Thursday) I am going to write the Delilah post, which you will probably see tomorrow (Friday) morning. I want to do a good job on it, but I also need to do a 3-mile exercise walk, so I might end up too tired to finish the post since I haven't started it yet. It's all clear in my mind though. Sort of...

Viking Kittens

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

I’m participating in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday again this week, and he asks for something from an artist born in August. Robert Anthony Plant was born on August 20, 1948, and he is approaching his 78th birthday. From 1968 to 1980, he was the lead singer of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Perhaps you've heard of them? Plant had a successful solo career as well. Despite his advanced age, Plant is still touring, as are a lot of 70-something rockers, and he has a bunch of concerts scheduled here in California at the end of September/ early October. His new album is called Saving Grace, but I confess I haven't heard any tracks from it because I prefer to go straight back to old Led Zep tunes.

There are a ton of songs I love from the band, and I'm going to share one of my favorites today. Now, it's almost always the case that I choose favorites because of the quality of the lyrics, but in this case the lyrics are secondary to... the video. Yep. I think you can guess from the title of this post that I'm talking about the "Immigrant Song."

We come from the land of the ice and snow

From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

The hammer of the gods

Will drive our ships to new lands

To fight the horde, sing and cry

Valhalla, I am coming

Plant allegedly wrote this 1970 hit as a joke while traveling to Iceland and fantasizing about the Viking conquest. It makes sense that he was riffing when you examine the lyrics. (Jimmy Page is also credited as a writer on the song.)

We come from the land of the ice and snow

From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

How soft your fields so green

Can whisper tales of gore

Of how we calmed the tides of war

We are your overlords

Given that, it follows that the video I'm sharing is a joke too, and who better to be cute and funny than kitties?! Usually, I don't embed videos, but I am making an exception for this one. Enjoy!

Honey, Honey

The cast of MM2

I’m participating in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday again this week, and today he asks for songs about candy, honey, sugar, or sweet. Naturally, I have to feature “Honey, Honey” from ABBA, except I am not using the original 1974 version but the one sung by Amanda Seyfried in the 2008 Mamma Mia movie instead, which I think is better, more emotional, and not as smoothly cool. 

When the movie begins, Sophie greets her friends Ali and Lisa who have arrived at the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi for Sophie's wedding, which is the next day. Sophie tells them she has a big announcement, so of course they immediately think she's pregnant, but that's not it. What happened is that Sophie has found her mother's diary from the summer when Donna was pregnant with Sophie. 

All these years, Donna has maintained the lie that Sophie's dad was a nameless one-night stand who disappeared before Donna knew she was pregnant. But the diary reveals a different story. From the diary, Sophie and her friends learn that Donna had three relationships in a very short span of time, and one of those men is Sophie's father. Not only that, but full names are included in Donna's diary. We hear about Sam Carmichael first...

Honey honey, how you thrill me, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, nearly kill me, a-ha, honey honey

I'd heard about you before

I wanted to know some more

And now I know what they mean, you're a love machine

Oh, you make me dizzy

Sophie reads from the diary the heartbreaking account of how Sam left Donna and returned home to the girl he'd been engaged to the whole time, which of course makes Ali and Lisa feel terrible for Donna. But not to worry! Bill Anderson shows up, and though Donna is still depressed about Sam, she goes with Bill for a sail around the islands, and dot dot dot ~ "that's what they did in the olden days!" 

Honey honey, let me feel it, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, don't conceal it, a-ha, honey honey

The way that you kiss goodnight

(The way that you kiss me goodnight)

The way that you hold me tight

(The way that you're holding me tight)

I feel like I wanna sing when you do your thing

Finally, we learn about the third man, Harry Bright, Donna's friend from Paris who shows up "out of the blue" after Donna has slept with Sam and Bill, and dot dot dot...

Honey honey, touch me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, hold me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

You look like a movie star (look like a movie star)

But I know just who you are (I know just who you are)

And honey, to say the least, you're a doggone beast

Note that the 2018 prequel sequel shows these events a bit differently. In MM2, Donna meets Harry in Paris and spends a night with him. The next day she travels to Greece, where she meets Bill, who offers her a ride on his boat when she misses her ferry ~ Donna and Bill do not sleep together at this point because they are interrupted by an SOS from Alexio. After helping Alexio, Bill goes off to his boat race, Donna meets Sam on Kalokairi, and Donna and Sam become lovers. When Sam leaves to return to his fiancée, Bill shows up again, and then he and Donna sleep together on his boat. Harry does not return to Kalokairi in MM2, and so Donna goes through her pregnancy and childbirth sans the baby daddy (whoever he is) with help from Sofia, a local woman, who may or may not be related to Bill. 

Some of you may think that I know a little too much about these Mamma Mia movies, and to that I say pffft. Anyway, after the girls are done with Donna's diary, Sophie stands alone at her window and the song subtly switches from being about the three men as Donna's lovers to Sophie needing to find out which one is her father in order to feel complete. Spoiler: she has invited all three men to her wedding and believes she will know which one is her dad at first sight. Ha ha ha. I'm so excited because there are rumors of an MM3, in which we will learn the true identity of Sophie's bio-dad (to date, she's fine with having "three dads").

Listen (and watch) the MM1 song and movie clip here. Songwriting credits go to Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus / Stig Erik Leopold Anderson. I copied the lyrics from LyricFind.

Shake It Off

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

I'm going to talk about Taylor Swift for a minute. First, I'm neither a crazed fan nor a cranky hater, so if you're at one of those extremes, you may not enjoy this post. No offense taken if you leave. Second, I've respected TS as a successful businesswoman for quite some time. After reading about the sh!t women go through in the music world, it's awesome that she navigated all that with grace and came out on top. Third, in general, I don't care that much for TS's music: I find it mostly pretty boring with a few exceptions. She has a lovely voice, and some of her lyrics are very clever, but overall I find her songs to be a big blend of blandness. Maybe I haven't devoted enough time to understand her subtleties. That could be it. Fourth, for a while now I've been annoyed with the constant media coverage of TS, but that's not her fault. Same goes for Harry and Meghan. I used to feel similarly about Jennifer Aniston, but the media has mostly lost interest in her. It isn't the celeb's fault that the media will relentlessly hound whichever "it" person gets readers to click on pics and articles (and thus view the ads), but it's easier (and lazier) to get annoyed with the celeb than the journalists, whose names we don't even know.

I stay out too late

Got nothing in my brain

That's what people say, mm-mm

That's what people say, mm-mm

Fifth, when I saw Jim's Song Lyric Sunday prompt for this week of empowerment, I knew I had to go with Taylor's 2014 song "Shake It Off." Not only is it super fun to listen to and dance to, but also it has a fabulous message. We've heard various versions of it, including "what you think of me is none of my business." There's a recent self-help book titled Let Them, which I haven't read yet, but I understand it promotes a similar message about shrugging off other people's opinions. Not everyone is going to like me, and so what? If I didn't give birth to you or you're not signing my paycheck, then pffft on your negativity and criticism.

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off (whoo-hoo-hoo)

Hating someone back isn't empowering; hating someone gives them permission to take up space in your mind. We've all heard the expression "he's living rent free in her head.” It's a cliché because it's true. Why would you want to give someone that space? Ignoring them is more powerful. Letting them have the last word and allowing yourself to walk away without reply is true empowerment. Leaving their texts on "read" is empowering. Let them wonder why you won't answer. You don't have to! It took me a while to get there, but I finally arrived. I shake it off! And funny thing... those situations don't even occur these days. Guess I "shook off" the right people.

Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break

And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off (whoo-hoo-hoo)

Listen to the whole song here. I hope you do if you haven't before ~ it's great! Definitely one of the exceptions, imo. And if you disagree, I don’t care! LOL

Songwriting credits go to Taylor Swift, Shellback, and Martin Max. Lyrics from Musixmatch.

Disguise in Love

 

Lovers in masks image from Pixabay

For this week's Song Lyric Sunday, Jim (via Nancy) asks us to use a song from the Great American Songbook (GAS). I refuse to use Wikipedia any longer because reasons, though it is convenient, so I am relying on other searches and sources (including AI), which may be hypocritical because they probably grab their information from Wikipedia. Anyway, it appears that the song "This Guy's in Love with You" is in the GAS, and that's the one I want to use since it is personally meaningful. I am copying the lyrics and info from Musixmatch.

You see this guy
This guy's in love with you
Yes, I'm in love
Who looks at you the way I do?
When you smile, I can tell
We know each other very well
How can I show you?
I'm glad I got to know you, 'cause...

I have always thought that this song was super romantic. Not sure when I first heard it, but probably as a teen or even younger, as it's been around since the 1960s. Musixmatch says it was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Many singers have covered it, including Burt, though Google says that Herb Alpert first recorded this particular version in 1968, and it is the best known one. I haven't heard any of the versions with alternate lyrics about infidelity, though I have heard Dionne Warwick's "This Girl's in Love with You," which is also beautiful. When I was with my ex-husband on a business trip to San Francisco in the late ‘80s, the waiter told us that the lounge piano player was taking requests, so I asked for this song.

I've heard some talk

They say you think I'm fine

Yes, I'm in love

And what I'd do to make you mine

Tell me now, is it so?

Don't let me be the last to know

My hands are shaking

Don't let my heart keep breaking, 'cause...

The request got transposed from the table to the piano to "Disguise in Love," which the piano player had never heard of. As the evening wore on, I wondered why he'd never played the song. Finally, he came over to our table to say hello, and I mentioned that I'd requested a song. He apologized that he didn't know it. Didn't know "This Guy's in Love with You?!" When we realized what had happened, we all had a good laugh ~ and then he played the song.

I would like to say that this song became "our song" in a romantic sense and that we danced to it, but that would be a lie. My ex never danced with me, not even at our wedding. He simply refused to ever dance, and I don't know why (there was nothing physically wrong with him). "Disguise" did become a bit of a running joke between us though, which was better than nothing. We never really understood each other, even after 20 years, though we sometimes shared a weird sense of humor. We divorced in 2011, and he passed at the end of June, a little over a week ago.

I need your love

I want your love

Say you're in love

In love with this guy

If not, I'll just die

Tell me now, is it so?

Don't let me be the last to know

My hands are shaking

Don't let my heart keep breaking, 'cause...

Don’t You Want Me

Walking on Sunshine movie promo

I’m participating in Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday today, and he asks for a song about depending on, relying on, leaning on, and/ or trusting another person. One of my favorite musical movies is Walking on Sunshine (2014), in which dependence is a major theme. Taylor, the main character, is scared of trusting anyone or depending upon anyone but herself, so she abandons her love and devotes herself solely to getting a degree. In contrast, Taylor's sister Maddie flings herself from one man to another because she's afraid of being alone. She admits that she's "in love with love." As the story opens at an Italian beachside resort, Maddie is about to be married and goes to the market where she runs into an ex-boyfriend, Doug. We discover that Doug chases after Maddie whenever she drifts away from him ~ he believes she "owes" him because he helped her way back when. Maddie and Doug sing "Don't You Want Me" from the Human League (1981).

You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

When I met you

I picked you out, I shook up and turned you around

Turned you into someone new

Now five years later on, you've got the world at your feet

Success has been so easy for you

But don't forget, it's me who put you where you are now

And I can put you back down too

Maddie agrees that Doug was good to her once upon a time and that she depended upon him, but now she must live life independently, not that she's really doing that, seeing as she jumped into a new relationship/ engagement immediately after leaving Doug.

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

That much is true

But even then, I knew I'd find a much better place

Either with or without you

The five years we have had have been such good times

I still love you

But now, I think it's time I live my life on my own

I guess it's just what I must do

Doug stalks Maddie back to the villa where she's staying with Taylor and a family friend. The viewer can tell that Maddie is a bit ambivalent about Doug at this point, but she tries to be strong and get rid of him. For his part, Doug can't believe she's really rejecting him, since she always gave in before.

Don't, don't you want me?

You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me

Don't, don't you want me?

You know I don't believe you

When you say that you don't need me

It's much too late to find

You think you've changed your mind

You'd better change it back, or we will both be sorry

The movie concludes with both sisters realizing that they want to change their behavior. Maddie truly does need to be on her own for a while and learn to rely upon herself, and Taylor decides she is ready to open her heart up to trust in love, even though that means she'll be vulnerable to getting hurt.

"Don't You Want Me" was written by: Franne Golde, Jody V. Watley, and David Paul Bryant. You can listen to the movie version here.

A Coke and Burger Cost You Thirty Cents

Image generated by Meta AI

I'm participating in Jim Adams' Song Lyric Sunday again today, and this week he asks for a song about grass, cows, beef, condiments, fries, or fast food. I figured that a lot of folks would do Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (which I love), so I wanted something else. I remembered that Johnny Cash mentions a burger in his fun song "On the Night Hank Williams Came to Town," and I am going with it. 

What I really like about this song is how it tells a story. I'm referring to the narrator as "Johnny," and he gives us some background:

Harry Truman was our president
A coke and burger cost you thirty cents
I was still in love with Mavis Brown
On the night Hank Williams came to town

Next we find out that the whole town is going to the Hank Williams' show, and it's a really special night. I Love Lucy debuted on TV, and they all missed it to go to the concert, which makes the date October 15, 1951. Johnny's mom irons his shirt, and his daddy lets him take the truck. I guess mom and dad are not going to see Hank. After picking up Mavis, Johnny hits the county line for one quick round, so that must mean the county Johnny and Mavis live in is "dry" (no alcohol). There isn't a chorus in this song; Johnny simply repeats the line "on the night Hank Williams came to town" at the end of each verse (sometimes he changes a word or two).

On and on he sang into the night

'Jambalaya', 'Cheatin' heart', 'I saw the light'

How'd they get Miss Audrey in that gown

On the night Hank Williams came to town

It's so meta, right? He's talking about songs in his song! (Miss Audrey was Hank Williams' first wife, the mother of Hank Williams Jr., and an accomplished businesswoman.) 

Mavis had her picture made with Hank outside his car

She said he sure is humble for a Grand Old Opry Star

Mavis said why don't we hang around

It ain't often that Hank Williams comes to town

Johnny finishes up by telling us that Mavis "got acquainted" with the Driftin' Cowboys Band, and the effect on all their lives was quite profound. We can read what we want to into those last lines.

To listen to the whole song, go here. 

(Songwriters: Bobby Braddock / Charlie Williams)

Thanks for a great theme, Jim!

Thank You for the Music

 

Cast of the Mamma Mia! sequel

Last night I switched on Prime thinking I would watch the Mamma Mia movies again, but instead I decided impulsively to watch Regretting You (based on a Colleen Hoover novel). It was awful, so I am regretting that decision. This morning, while perusing blogs, I saw John Holton's Song Lyric Sunday post about Enya's song, "How Can I Keep from Singing," which reminded me of the ABBA song "Thank You for the Music." I haven't participated in Jim Adams' SLS for a billion years, so why not do one today for his music appreciation theme, while I am inspired? Not to mention avoiding the office work I had planned to do.

Here's the thing about ABBA for me: I liked them all along, but I didn't love them until the first Mamma Mia movie. The sequel Here We Go Again is even better, despite the absence of Meryl Streep as a lead (Lily James excellently portrays young Donna Sheridan.) While ABBA's music was always a treat, the singing itself didn't resonate emotionally with me until the movies ~ even on heartbreak songs I found ABBA's voices pretty but bland. The actors in the movies however, even when they aren't technically good singers (Pierce Brosnan, for example, LOL), give the songs depth and significance. No really! These movies mean a lot to me. They aren't all about silly romances but more an exploration of the deep bonds of motherhood.

At the beginning of MM2, Sophie (Donna's daughter, played by Amanda Seyfried) is sitting at a table on the patio and addressing cards to peeps telling them about the grand reopening of Hotel Belladonna, which she and her boyfriend Sky (played by Dominic Cooper) remodeled after Donna's death. Sophie sings the title song as she's working.

I'm nothing special, in fact, I'm a bit of a bore

When I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before

But I have a talent, a wonderful thing

'Cause everyone listens when I start to sing

I'm so grateful and proud

All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say

Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing

Thanks for all the joy they're bringing

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty

What would life be?

Without a song or a dance what are we?

So I say thank you for the music

For giving it to me [...]

(Songwriters: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus)

Here's a link to the whole song with scenes from the movies (mostly the first one). 

*

I feel the need to mention that the two movies have some retroactive continuity (retcon), but sometimes there are unresolved discrepancies. For example, in MM1, there are "old photos" of Donna with each of the "three possible fathers," but in MM2 the young versions of those guys look absolutely nothing like the photos (however, they are still a great match for the actual older actors). There is also a timeline discrepancy about which man Donna meets first, yada. But, as Sophie says to Sky, when he returns for the grand opening: I DON'T CARE!