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Rated: 18+ · Book · Writing · #2041762
A math guy's random thoughts.
A math guy's random thoughts.
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February 8, 2025 at 5:23pm
February 8, 2025 at 5:23pm
#1083549
In 1957, two teenagers, Santo and Johnie Farina, spent a sleepless night in their parent's garage writing an instrumental song. Their tools were steel guitars and a Webcor tape recorder their father had purchased for them. They were sure they'd written a pretty good song, but it took them a year and half to find a publisher willing to record their song.

Eventually, the persuaded Ed Burton of Trinity Music, and their song released in 1959. By August of that year, "Sleep Walk" entered Billboard's top forty and, by mid-September, rose to number one on the charts. It remained number one until the second week of November, an impressive run for their pretty good song.

In my the first chapter of my novella "Dreamin' Life AwayOpen in new Window., "Chapter 1. Sleep WalkOpen in new Window., the song is playing on a radio program reprising the number one hits of bygone times and serves as foreshadowing for the journey to the past the protagonist, Dante, is about to take. And, yes, his name suggests where he's going metaphorically. Specifically, however, he's headed to the 1950s in this slipstream tale.

Every chapter of the novella has one or more songs from the 1950s that inspired it, so get ready for a list of a dozen more songs.

Here's the today's song. It also inspired the surreal mood of the chapter and the novella.


February 7, 2025 at 7:17am
February 7, 2025 at 7:17am
#1083459
I seem to spend an enormous amount of time in Google Holes.

It always starts with me researching some obscure topic for a story I'm writing. It might be anything: the Elysian Mystery Cult, or maybe Old English cuss words, or the gay scene in 1933 London, but while sniffing about, my mental nose scents something interesting, something tangential to my original search, and I click on it. That leads to another irrersistable scent and, like a dog following his nose, I'm off into a Google Hole. I might come up anywhere. The other day, I started reading about the Acubierre drive--a hypothetical faster-than-light drive--and, four hours later, wound up reading about Chaucer's The Knight's Tale. I don't recall the convoluted path from hither to yon. The point is, that's just one example of a Google Hole. They're digital black holes, with the same kind of irresistable pull as the physical ones Einstein predicted.

Sometimes, though, there's a wormhole at the bottom that leads to a productive end. The one I mentioned above, the one that led the Chaucer, is one of those. It led led to the first of my "Lauderdale TalesOpen in new Window..

I found today's song at the end of another Google Hole.

Rolling Stone called the 1930s blues artist Robert Johnson, "possibly the first ever rock star." At first glance, that seems like a curious statement. Johnson released exactly two recordings in his career, and neither got wide release. Indeed, in his lifetime, he was barely known outside the Missippi Delta, where he was one of the founding artists for the Delta Blues style.

While the general public and the recording industry largely ignored him, other musicians took note of his musical genius. His recording of "The Cross Roads Blues," in particular, had signficant influence on blues musicians of later decades. Over time, that influence broadened and, eventually, rock stars like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Bob Dylan cited his work as a critical influence.

In his own time, his genius was so evident that a legend grew up that his song "The Cross Roads Blues" was about a Faustian bargain he made at a cross roads, acquiring musical talent in exchange for his soul. I find that, shall we say, doubtful. More likely, the the legend arose in part because, at the time in the American South, crossroads were seen as the location for such devlish encounters. Couple that with his untimely death and the fact that religious groups regarded the blues as the devil's work, and you've got the seeds for the legend.

I see I've gone down a Google Hole here in this blog, so, back to the point.

I don't remember where I started, but one day about a year ago I wound up reading about Robert Johnson, "The Cross Roads Blues," and that Faustian legend. The result was this story: "At the CrossroadsOpen in new Window.. The song itself doesn't appear in the story, nor does the devil, but the song and the legend were what influenced the story. That's the connection to the theme of this blog, so here we are.

Here's Johnson, performing "The Cross Roads Blues."


You may be more familiar with Eric Clapton's version.






February 6, 2025 at 6:59am
February 6, 2025 at 6:59am
#1083410
I've been working on a sequence of stories, "Lauderdale TalesOpen in new Window., about a dysfunctional group of travellers on a journey from Oklahoma to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break. As they travel, they have adventures at various places along the way, and these are the "tales" I'm writing. If this setup sounds familiar, you're not wrong. The four tales I've got so far more or less follow the structure of the source material, although thematically the stories are quite different.

The adventure in the story I wrote yesterday, "Briney's TaleOpen in new Window., involved attending a ballet in Memphis. I wanted to find a song with a scifi element that the ballet might have used to for their performance. I settled on today's piece, a 1977 release by Styx:


Dennis DeYoung of Styx both wrote the song and was the lead vocalist. Lyrically, the song uses sailing as a metaphor for achieving one's dreams, a metaphor that happend to also dovetail with a theme of story.

In the song, a "gathering of angels" appears with an invitation to "come sail away with me." But, to vocalist's surprise, "we climbed aboard their starship and headed to the skies." That's the line that gives the song the desired SciFi flavor and foreshadowing that I wanted. I had one of the characters mention that specific line early in the story to establish the desired foreshadowing.

The song has been used in other places. It appears in The Virgin Suicides, for example. On television, it's been used in series as varied as South Park and ER.

It's a great song, but it's part of my soundtrack because of "Briney's TaleOpen in new Window..

If you want to read any of the "Lauderdale TalesOpen in new Window., drop me a note and I'll send you the passkey.
February 5, 2025 at 8:34am
February 5, 2025 at 8:34am
#1083357
For today, I've got a song I bet no one knows. Continuing with the notion of connecting songs to things I've written, this one appears in my story:
 
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The Frogs Open in new Window. (GC)
Zeb visits a gothic revival mansion
#2329628 by Max Griffin 🏳️‍🌈 Author IconMail Icon


This story, which is a post-modern commentary on modernity (how's that for lit-babble?), is about a modern-day real estate developer looking over a fin de siècle mansion located at 666 Zeno Lane. It seems the place is haunted, and includes a slipstream passage to 1908 where he hears this song playing. The story is rife with metaphors and symbolism, staring with the address and the title. The latter references fictional frogs croaking away on the house's decayed grounds and Aristophanes because why else have frogs in a story?

I'm not sure the story works as a ghost story or as an extended metaphor, but it was kind of fun to write. For sure I jammed in as many obscure references as I could.

Here's a link to the song, taken from a 1908 recording. It's kind of scratchy.
February 5, 2025 at 7:48am
February 5, 2025 at 7:48am
#1083351
Today's song is Leonard Cohen's brilliant song Hallelujah. For a link to the song, I'm going to include the single most moving performance I can remember, the cold opening to Saturday Night Live following the 2016 US Presidential election:


In terms of the "soundtrack of my life," this is the proper link. However, the theme for this blog is supposed to connect to stories I've written or am writing. I used this song as an inspiration for a chapter of a yet-to-be-released novel, so that's the current connection:
 
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Chapter 11a--Escape from Cabot's Landing Open in new Window. (E)
midnight nightmares and an epiphany for Taggert
#2326328 by Max Griffin 🏳️‍🌈 Author IconMail Icon

I've temporarily made this chapter public, although without context it probably won't make sense.

The real reason I wanted to include this song relates to the mystifying lyrics--the secret chord mentioned in the first verse. What's that about? It's a secret chord that David played. The next verse refers to the story of David and Bathsheba, the married woman with whom he had an affair--an affair with disastrous consequences. So, the "secret chord" must have something to do with that, but what?

Well, it turns out there's at least one possible answer, one rooted not only in the the music itself but in scripture as well. Indeed, the explanation identifies the secret chord musically, but also metaphorically, and in a way that provides a deep, spiritual understanding of this song. The real reason for including it in my soundtrack is this understanding of the music and the lyrics. Watch the analysis. It's well worth your time.

February 3, 2025 at 8:26am
February 3, 2025 at 8:26am
#1083241
Actually, this one is just four notes, the ones that define the Dies Irae, a Gregorian chant dating to the thirteenth century. More generally, this chant uses Dorian Mode.  Open in new Window., something that turns out to be pretty common in popular music, whether intentional or not. The "la-la-las" from Horse With No Name from last year's soundtrack use Dorian mode, for one example. There's a YouTube video with snippets from fifty popular songs that use Dorian mode.


But back to those four notes, the ones in the Dies Irae.

One of the longer stories that I wrote last year, "Dreamin' Life AwayOpen in new Window., broke into twelve short chapters, and each had a musical theme. This is a slipstream story in which Dante, the point-of-view character, travels to the 1950s via a subway in his basement. Given his name, you can guess another famous literary journey that provides rich fodder the many metaphors in this story. Anyway, the third chapter, "Chapter 4--Danse MacabreOpen in new Window. uses a movement from Liszt's Totentantz that quotes those four notes. In this chapter, Dante strikes a deal to get new clothes, playing on the Faust legend. If you're interested in the specific Liszt piece, there's a YouTube video linked at the start of the chapter.

Instead of linking to Liszt here, I thought I'd instead link to a more interesting video that gives a half dozen or more examples of where these four notes have appeared in movies, ranging from Star Wars to Fritz Lang's Metropolis to the Capra classic It's a Good Life. Probably the most iconic example, though, appears in the opening credits to Kubrick's The Shining, where Jack and Wendy's VW winds through mounttain passes on the way to the Overlook Hotel. The Dies Irae plays in the background, alerting readers to the horror that's about to come.

Watch this video on the Dies Irae. It's worth time.



February 2, 2025 at 8:15am
February 2, 2025 at 8:15am
#1083159
This isn't going to be the best song on this year's list. It's not even Billy Idol's best song--admittedly a low bar. But it did inspire another story of mine, "Alice's TaleOpen in new Window.. This story is the second of a sequence of tales about a group of college-age stoners on their way to spring break in Fort Lauderdale. In my head, I'm thinking of this as the "Lauderdale Tales." This particular one is based on the Miller's Tale. Drop me a note if you want to read it and I'll send you the passkey.

Anyway, the story is about a snarky ballerina who stays at a B&B on old Route 66 where there happens also to be a "white wedding." The opening pretty much tells you what's coming
Once, if my memory serves me well, my life was a banquet where every heart revealed itself, where every wine flowed. Then my journey took me to a white wedding at the Route 66 B&B.

The first sentence is from Rimbaud, BTW. Anyway, it devolves into a kind of farce, appropriate given the source material. The phrase "white wedding" is, of course, supposed to invoke Idol's song, which is an ironic deconstruction of the whole idea of a "white wedding."

February 2, 2025 at 7:45am
February 2, 2025 at 7:45am
#1083157
Patsy Cline sang this song in her 1957 appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. She initially didn't care for the song had planned to perform a different piece, but the producers perfered this one by Alan Block and Don Hecht . It went on to become her breakout hit, reaching number two on the Billboard charts. Her interpretation, a bluesy mix of pop and country, became her signature style and the song one of her signature hits.



The song's paean to lonliness inspired this ghost story
 
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You Open in new Window. (18+)
It's lonely to be dead.
#2332001 by Max Griffin 🏳️‍🌈 Author IconMail Icon
February 29, 2024 at 9:31am
February 29, 2024 at 9:31am
#1065228
Get Happy

This is the final entry in challenge posed in "The Soundtrack of Your LifeOpen in new Window.. I puzzled a bit for what song to choose. It's over at last, so I considered the Hallejuh Chorus  Open in new Window. from the Messiah, but that seemed too obvious. There are other great songs I'd like to put on my personal soundtrack, songs like Mad World  Open in new Window., for example, but they didn't fit for the final song on the list. Learning about the history of songs has also been interesting, which brings to mind this video and performance of Someone To Watch Over Me,  Open in new Window., but that's more effort than I want to put forth this morning. I admit, I'm klnd of sad it's over. In fact, it's making me downright melancholy  Open in new Window.--that's Judy Garland singing "Melancholy Baby" if you don't want to follow the link.

Listening to Judy Garland's breathtaking performance of "Meloncholy Baby" made me think of another Garland standard, one less, er, melancholy. I finally settled on the one in the title to this blog. The link I chose--see the bottom of this post--is taken from her performance in the 1950 musical Summer Stock, her final MGM film. The song was actually written for the 1930 Broadway musical, The Nineteen-fifteen Reivew. This was the first collaboration between Harold Arlen and the lyricist, Ted Koehler. If Arlen's name sounds familiar, that's because he appeared previously in this set of blogs--he wrote "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," among many other masterpieces he penned for musicals in the three subsequent decades.

At least thirty artists have released versions of this song, but Garland's is still my favorite. A close second would be Rufus Wainright's Carnegie Hall performance--in drag as Judy!--which replicate's the choreography and staging of Summer Stock. I've listed a few others below, just for fun.

The song itself has gospel elements, both musically and in the lyrics, and can be read as an expression of religious ecstasy for salvation. Me, I think it's "just" an exuberant burst of joy at life and living. After all, as the teacher in Ecclesiastes might remind us, the judgement day is waiting for us all. We may as well get happy in the meantime.

I hope you've enjoyed this trather erratic journey through the soundtrack of my life. I've enjolyed writing this set of blogs, but I'm kind of glad they're done. I think I'll spend the rest of the day getting happy doing other things!

Links.
                                                 
Judy Garland in Summer Stock


                                                 
Rufus in drag at Carnegie Hall (compare the staging and costumes with Summer Stock)

 

                                                 
Sometimes the song is paired with "Happy Days Are Here Again," as in this memorable live performance by China Forbes and Storm Large, with Pink Martini providing the instrumentals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DrYXdAB8H0d}

                                                 
Even Hugh Laurie gets happy in House, M.D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56GPTpgm04

                                                 
A bluesy version by Frankie Laine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jxCq7Rb0gs

*Heartrainbow**Smile*Whichever version you like, get happy!!!*Smile**Heartrainbow*

                                                 
Update
Nixie 🦊 Author IconMail Icon showed me how to embed YouTube videos into posts, so edited I the earlier version of this post. However, it does not seem to work with more than two embeds--all subsequent embeds just repeat the last one regardless of the link. The code is
{embed:<YouTube URL>}
No {/embed} is needed.
February 28, 2024 at 6:44pm
February 28, 2024 at 6:44pm
#1065170
Everyday

In his short career, Buddy Holly only released about fifty songs. But his influence on Rock and and Roll has been enormous. He was a proflic and multi-talented artist who left behind dozens of manuscripts and session recordings. In fact, Coral Records, his label, continued to release "new" Holly recordings for ten years following his death in 1959, with the last being Giant in 1969.

Numerous artitsts have spolken fo Holly's influence. Dan McClean said, "Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the template for all the rock bands that followed." John Lennon and Paul McCartney had only recenlty met and begun their musical collaboration when they heard Holly for the first time when he appeared on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. The two studied his music and deliberately immitated his style when they launched the Beatles--named in an insectoid homage to Holly's band, The Crickets. Eric Clapton has said that after first seeing Holly perform with his Fendr, "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven ... it was like seeing an instrument from outer space and I said to myself: 'That's the future – that's what I want." Elton John was so impressed with Holly that he started wearing Holly's signature horn-rimmed glasses even though John didn't need them.

Probably his most famous song is "Peggy Sue," but I've chosen the "B" side of that release, "Everyday," for my Soundtrack. It's a gentle ballad expressing hope for the fulfillment of an incipient romance. In the vocals, harmonys, and cadences you can hear John Denver, Bobby Vee, Johnny Darren, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan. Indeed, Denver and Vee released their own versions of the song, as did Phil Ochs, James Taylor, and Don McLean. Other groups such as Pearl Jam and Deep Purple have performed the song in concert.

Holly's life inspired a Hollywood bio-pic, The Buddy Holly Story, for which Gary Busey was nominated for the Academy Award for playing the eponymous songwriter. However, others felt the movie contained innaccuracies, and Paul McCartney funded a documentary entitled The Buddy Holly Story.

A clever fictional rerpesentation of Holly appears in the Quantum Leap episode, "How the Tess Was Won." Season one episode five If you're alert, you'll figure which character is supposed to be Holly, although it's not revealed until the very end.

                                                 
Holly singing the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMezwtB1oCU

                                                 
Lyrics
https://genius.com/Buddy-holly-everyday-lyrics

                                                 
John Denver's version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJilVITrMf0

                                                 
James Taylor's version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-2o_vGMYaw

                                                 
Dave McLean's American Pie, an ode to Holly's death--the day the music died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRpiBpDy7MQ


Max Griffin
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