One of the things I’ve noticed in listening to the vast array of older music lately, is that most of it wouldn’t make it on today’s radio. This song, for instance, would be considered horribly violent even though it wouldn’t even be a footnote in an action movie. I’ve listened to a song about truckers showing up at a kid’s house to take him out for a ride while his mom was at work (Teddy Bear), another about a bunch of Boy Scouts sneaking up on Girl Scouts bathing nude (The Battle of Kookamonga), yet another about a guy who gets blown up running illegal liquor (White Lightning)… The one that made me giggle the most was Lil’ Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, which talks about how Red is “everything a big bad wolf could want.”
I love this music. Some of it is from my childhood. Some of it is from earlier. They all tell stories that would cause pearl clutching today. Perhaps that’s why I find them so amusing.
You may ask yourself, why is Allyson posting up songs from 1967 that weren’t even popular back then? Listen to the song. Sure, it’s a song about Snoopy. No question at all.
It’s more than that. I’ve been listening to bunches of OLD music (defined as pre-1970s, thank you very much… you know, EARLY 20th century) of late, and this one really struck me. On the surface, it’s just a silly song about Snoopy, our beloved cartoon dog. The lyrics aren’t particularly smart, but they scan nicely and the song is fun to sing.
But the Red Baron was a real person, and he really did take down 80 aerial combatants in 1917. Of course he wasn’t stopped by Snoopy; his plane was shot down by a combination of RAF pilots and Australian ground gunners. He was killed by a single bullet, and went down near Vaux-sur-Somme, France.
So why this silly song? Because it harkens to a time when this country actually cared about its position in the world stage. If the actions of Hitler in the 30s and early 40s were to happen today, we would do nothing. Today’s generation isn’t interested in fixing those kinds of wrongs. To misquote Karoline, the people in France would be speaking German. We can see this all around us. There are plenty of places where heinous things are going on, and we’re just not involved anymore.
I’m not sure we should be, because America managed to get itself listed as the world’s police, and that’s not a good thing. But at one time, when we stood up the enemy nations cowered with fear. Today, they just shrug and go back to messing with little girls and silencing women and killing the innocent.
There is hope. With Trump currently in office, military enrollment is up, exponentially. We see world bullies quietly standing down and skulking off to the shadows once more. The question is, can we keep it up? There is hope, but it’s going to take more than Trump’s four years in office to make it real.
I want to live in a world where we can make slightly off color jokes about stuff, and have folks chuckle. Most of the music I’ve listened to in the last five days would NEVER be permitted on the radio today. Too sexist, too racist, too … whatever. But they’re fun, and light, and frankly, no one gets hurt by listening to them.
So here’s to a world where we can cheer on Snoopy, and be proud of our troops, and stand up for freedom in our country… and then, when we’re in a better place at home, for freedom elsewhere.
Frank Sinatra was upset in Guys and Dolls because Marlon Brando, as Guy Masterson, was the one to sing “Luck, Be a Lady”.
Marlon was not a singer. He likely sang as badly as I, or worse. The claim was that his version of “Luck, Be a Lady” was made by cutting multiple takes together. Some cuts being only a word or less.
This was obviously frustrating to Frank, who is a great singer. Frank went on to make the song his own.
In 1969, Paint Your Wagon was released, starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. Both men sung their songs. They are not great singers. Nevertheless, the results were good.
I purchased my first motorcycle when I was in the 7th grade. It was a dirt bike, a Yamaha MX80.
I feel in love with riding. The only issue I had was that there was no gas station on base. To get gas for my bike I would have had to walk a mile and a half from the gate to the gas station and then walk that same mile and a half back to the gate to get back on my bike.
Or I could have ridden my bicycle to the station and back.
The other option was that I could ride to the closest point to the gas station. There was a hole in the fence.
So I would do that. I would take the gas tank off the bike, carry it through the hole, across the road and fill it.
It cost $0.25 to put a gallon of gas in the tank.
When we moved, it was a little easier to get gas. I could ride the bike across one road to get gas.
I sold that bike when gas went over a dollar per gallon. I couldn’t afford it.
About this time, Jimmy Carter managed to fuck over the economy to the point where there was a perceived shortage of gas.
This caused the price of gas to go up. It leads to gas shortages and other things.
The congress responded with exactly the wrong answer. The put a nationwide speed limit in place.
They decided that the maximum legal speed should be 55MPH.
Now, if you have ever lived on the East Coast, you know that the difference between 55MPH and 65MPH really doesn’t mean much. Traffic is bad. If you are lucky, you might shave 5 minutes off a two-hour trip.
On the other hand, in the Midwest and west, the difference between 55MPH and 65 or 70 MPH can make a huge difference. The distances being traveled and the ability to maintain those speeds make it a significant difference.
This song and the movie based on it are part of the culture of rebellion that was happening as The People pushed back against the 55MPH mandate.
In this video, you can see that the gigantic crime The Rubber Duck committed was driving 63MPH in a 55MPH zone.
I’ve been in the Psycho wars for the last couple of weeks. One poster tells me how this action is illegal, this other poster tells me it is constitutional.
This person tells me that Mexico backed down. This other guy informs me that Trump backed down.
I’m told that we are about to get into a shooting war with Panama, and then the Panamanian president tells me he’s caved.
Over here, I’ve got the Governor of Canada notifying me that he’s going to ruin my week by putting tariffs on the goods coming into his state. Then I have this person explaining how his state has lots of “salty” crude oil. Which can only be processed at one US refinery. So according to this person, he has to send his crude to the US, at a 25% tariff, then we will refine it, and then his people will import it and face another 25+% tariff.
Really, somebody needs to take this to SCOTUS. The constitution clearly states that this sort of interstate squabbling isn’t supposed to happen.
