Seven Songs:

 Seven Songs:

This is a list of seven songs. They are not necessarily my favorite songs, although I do like them. They are songs that bring up a specific memory, event, or feeling from my life. There are many such songs that do this for me.  They are in no particular order.

Universal Soldier: – Buffy Saint Marie 1964 - “He knows he shouldn't kill and he knows he always will – Kill for me, my friend, and me for you” … “He's the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war and without him all this killing can't go on... and brothers can't you see? - This is not the way we put an end to war”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDBbIXqQkao&list=RDGDBbIXqQkao&start_radio=1

This song is more about the words than the tune/music, which is not the usual case for me. It's about as strong of an an anti-war song as I know.  It expresses how I feel about war and an individual's responsibility towards it.  When I first remember hearing this song I was in a freshman in college and I was looking at potentially having to serve in the Vietnam War which I was strongly against. I am a pacifist in general but my main objection to our involvement in Vietnam was with who we were backing. We were on the colonizer side of a country's fight for their independence. If you liken it to America's own war for independence we were siding with the British. As an individual I am not one of the elites in this country and my power is solely in the vote but I wasn't old enough to vote as the voting age at that time was 21. Even if I was allowed to vote I was and really have never been in a position to significantly influence the decision makers in Washington. I protested against the war but I am only a single citizen. This song spoke to that for me. The only path for us regular citizens to resist war is to refuse to participate. They can't fight a war if we will not do it. They need us as they, those with all the power, are not going to be doing any fighting themselves. No siree Bob, they have us to do it for them. I saw it as my civic responsibility to refuse to fight/kill other people who are only trying to get out from under the control of a foreign entity. There's nothing good about a war. Killing is not OK, at least not with me. Yes, I did 3 years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and I hated myself for doing it. It took me many years to forgive myself. This song always strikes a chord with me and reminds me that I am just a human and like all humans I am not perfect.

If Dogs Run Free: Bob Dylan 1970 - “In harmony with the cosmic sea - True love needs no company - It can cure the soul, it can make it whole - If dogs run free”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH6V1XvQC3c&list=RDUH6V1XvQC3c&start_radio=1

This one is more about the song. 12 bar blues in a jazz style with Maeretha Stewart scatting in the background. In some ways it reminds me of the 50's bohemian days when poets would read their poetry in a club or coffee shop with some jazz playing in the background. If this isn't my favorite Bob Dylan song it's up near the top. It's pretty simple but I love the style and the Jazz element seals the deal for me. I was in the Air Force when this album came out. I was assigned to Beale AFB. “New Morning” was not particularly well received but it's always been one of my more favorite Dylan albums. It was probably the last album I purchased while I was still with my first wife Donna. I remember listening to it with her in our cockroach infested $60 a month railroad apartment on main street Marysville (E St.). That was the first place I lived in California if you don't count the one night we spent in the Travel Lodge down the street the day before.

The Ballad of Casy Deiss: – Shawn Phillips 1970 - “Bring him no wine from faraway vineyards - Tell him no tales of the canyon's mine - But wish him peace and eternal wisdom - For he has died and he died in light”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDWb5u1hehI&list=RDMDWb5u1hehI&start_radio=1

This song is more about the simple melody for me. I first heard this song in the fall of 1974. I had not heard of Shawn Phillips at that point. A girl, Cyd, I had recently met was playing it. I liked the song and I liked Cyd even more. I had just moved to Eugene, Oregon to attend The U of O and Cyd had just transferred to the U of O from Seattle University. We were involved in a pretty serious relationship for a couple of years. Cyd was just 19 at the time and I was 25 and a recent divorcee when we met. Looking back I can see that maybe our timing wasn't great for the long haul. I am still in touch with Cyd and she is still one of my favorite people. I have nothing but fond memories of that time and The Ballad of Casy Deiss always brings the memories of those early days of Eugene and our relationship back. The song has like 3 parts to it but for most of the song it is just a simple 3 chord progression: Am, C, and G. I have always liked simple melodies and I suppose that's why my classical listening learns towards Johann Sebastian Bach.

Blitzkrieg Bop: – Ramones 1976 -“Hey Ho Let 's Go”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skdE0KAFCEA&list=RDskdE0KAFCEA&start_radio=1

Even though this song came out in April of 1976 I don't remember hearing it until a year or so later. The Ramones put out the first major label Punk Rock album. The Damned (2/77), The Clash (4/77) and finally The Sex Pistols 10/77 followed. The 1st song on that Ramones album is “The Blitzkrieg Bop”. I've heard it called “The song that started it all”. It's my favorite Ramones song although I also really like “We're a Happy Family” and “I Wanna Be Sedated”. I had not heard much punk until moving to San Francisco in the fall of '78 and really not too much even then. My brother, who is 9 years younger than me, moved out here from the East Coast in 1980. He was into punk and new wave. With him we listened to lots of that music. We hung out a lot together and started going to clubs with that kind of music playing. We became faithful listeners to KFJC radio that played lots of punk and new wave such as The Clash, Generation X, The Toy Dolls, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Talking Heads, Dead Kennedys, Romeo Void, Translator, The Humans, Camper Van Beethoven, The Beat, The Dead Milkmen, Buzzcocks, Jam, B52's, Duran Duran, and U2. Others we were listening to: UB40, Police, The Stranglers, David Bowie, The English Beat, and even Trio. I was on the older side for that punk demographic. My brother eventually moved back east and went back to school but those years my brother and I really connected. I had left the house when he was 9 or 10 and our age difference was too great to really know each other as equals back then. That time will always be special to me because of the bond that was created between Pete and myself. Early 80's punk/new wave music generally takes me back to that time but no song does that more than “Blitzkrieg Bob..

The Great Manadalla ( The Wheel of Life): - Peter, Paul, & Mary 8/1967 - “Listen Father, I will never kill another”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ethLSwe-I&list=RD96ethLSwe-I&start_radio=1

This was a song on PP&M's 1967 1700 album. Listening to this album and The Great Manadalla in particular brings back strong memories and feelings of the winter of '68/'69. I was listening to this album frequently at that time. I was deeply in love for the first time. I had recently dropped out of college and had traveled to Toronto, Canada to look into emigrating in order to avoid the draft as I was draft-eligible. (I would be drafted in the next 4 months.) The Vietnam war was in full force and I was very much against our participation in it. I had been protesting like many of my peers. At this time I felt a moral obligation to refuse being a part of the Vietnam war effort. While in Canada I learned what I would need to successfully emigrate. I needed a job, which I lined up with some help, and a minimum of $500 which I didn't have. I returned to my parents house on Long Island to get the $500. My parents were not interested in helping me so I got a job on the stock market in Manhattan. It was a very intense time. My parents were quite upset with me. First for dropping out of school and not even telling them but they were even more upset with my plans to go to Canada to avoid the draft. That would mean among other things that I could not return to the U.S. The Great Manadalla song even today brings back all the feelings of that time. I can't listen to it without being transported back to that time. My parents and I were barely talking. So much so that my when 20th birthday came up neither of us even acknowledged it. I moved out for awhile and lived with my grandparents. A couple of  months later I got my notice to report to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn for a physical. That experience induced me to look into the Air Force to avoid the Marines or the Army and so I enlisted in the AF. A few weeks later my Mom drove me out to Fort Hamilton to enter the AF. I have vivid memories of that painful day. Two weeks later I got my draft notice. This song brings back all those difficult feelings of that time including good ones of my girlfriend who I dearly loved. My mom always hated that album because it also brought up her memories and feelings of that time.

Time After Time (2): - 

Cyndi Lauper:3/1984 “If your lost and you look – You will find me – Time after time” 

Cahn/Stein: Time After Time 3/1947 -  Sung by Frank Sinatra in the 1947 film It Happened in Brooklyn - “Time after time. I tell myself that I'm, so lucky to be loving you”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1mqrCTFoz4&list=RDF1mqrCTFoz4&start_radio=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55oW0bFRfkk&list=RD55oW0bFRfkk&start_radio=1

One title, 2 different songs. Maybe there are more songs with this title but I only know of these two. One is the Cyndi Lauper song the other is a song written by Sammy Cahn and Jules Stein. I have bundled these together because both of them make me think about my wife Kris. Whenever I hear these 2 songs that share the same title I immediately think of Kris and I realize just how much I love her and how so very lucky I am.