31 – Everyone’s Gone to the Moon – Jonathan King – 1965

Everyone's Gone to the Moon - Jonathan King

            I don’t know what it is about this song, maybe it’s the use of swirling orchestral strings, but it always saddens me a little when I hear it. Still, I like it for the feelings and memories it invokes. It reminds me of the mid 60’s when I was 9-10 and the future seemed so bright. And then here comes Denny Downer, whining about everybody abandoning him (us?) for the moon,

            I was a huge space program fan as a kid, and that future was not to be dissed. I had large scale models of both the Gemini and Apollo capsules. In fact, the Apollo was the top third of the Saturn V rocket and contained both the capsule and the LEM (Lunar Excursion module). It was about 2 feet high and was pretty cool.

            It blew up “real good” several years later (along with my Star Trek Enterprise, Klingon warship, and flying sub (from “Voyage to See What’s on the Bottom”) models)), when I got a hold of some firecrackers. Probably blew up my kids’ college fund with those five models.

            It also triggers memories of my aunt and uncle who lived in Marengo, Illinois. At the time, their house backed up on a farm (now completely built up with houses). It seemed they were in the middle of nowhere. It was about a 45 minute drive from Algonquin, mainly through farmland. Though their house was newer (mid-1950s, I think), the neighborhood was built into an area with huge, old growth oak trees.

            I still have occasional dreams about that house for some reason, though I haven’t been in it in over 40 years. It was a simple three bedroom ranch who’s each room was larger than our three bedroom ranch in Algonquin, but in my dreams there are hidden rooms that made the house go on and on, though I’m sure if I saw it today it would seem much smaller.

            They had a barbed wire fence at the back of their lot that was electrified, scary to a little kid. I recall overhearing a story about a girl who was out in the winter snow with only her PJs on, and when she climbed over the fence to escape her pursuers, she cut her feet on the barbed wire and she was tracked by her bloody prints in the snow (I overheard only part of this story and the image that sticks in my head is the blood in the snow).

            It also triggers memories of seeing the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show there (they had a partially finished basement for TV viewing, unlike my other four aunts, or us) when I was nine. I remember my parents commenting (I think it was required) on how “long” their hair was. This song also reminds me for some reason of Freddie and the Dreamers, another British Invasion band that was on Ed Sullivan several times, doing a goofy dance called, unlikely as it seems, “The Freddie”.

            It also reminds me of the first “adult” joke I ever heard, from my uncle Wayne. He told it to me and my cousin, David, at one of our family get togethers. (My dad had five sisters, and all lived within a 25 mile radius of Elgin, and we would get together at holidays and for picnics. There were 13-14 cousins, I think).

            I was about 11 or 12 when he told us…..

                        “This guy goes out to buy a car and the salesman takes him on                    a test drive of a new sports car. He punches the gas pedal and the car goes 
                        from 0-60 mph in five seconds, screaming around the countryside, they       
                        approach a rail crossing and, out of nowhere, a train appears. The salesman 
                        slams on the brakes; the car stops a foot from the speeding train.

                        “Smell that?” the salesman asks, “That’s tire rubber, best tires on the road!”

                        The guy buys the car and takes his buddy out for a spin. Going 0-60 in
                         five seconds, screaming around the countryside, they come up on the same
                         railroad  crossing and out of nowhere a train appears. The guy slams on his
                         brakes and the car stops a foot from the passing train.

                        “Smell that?” the guy asks his buddy.

                        “Smell it? I’m sitting in it!”

            I looked at my cousin, he looked at me, we didn’t get it.

            My uncle Wayne said, “He pooped in his pants he was so scared!”

            We exploded in laughter, bending over at the waist, holding our stomachs, bobbing up and down in unison.

            It was great to be considered adult enough to hear such sophisticated humor!

 

30 – It’s Money That Matters – Randy Newman – 1988

It's Money That Matters (Live on SNL)

            This song is from one of my favorite Randy Newman albums, 1988’s “Land of Dreams.” I seem to enjoy quite a few artists whose voices are, shall we say, challenged. Randy Newman would be exhibit A, but no one else can sing his songs as well (I’m not talking about his work in films, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (Toy Story), etc., which are usually sung by better singers).

            Even though I was introduced to Randy Newman by David Steinberg’s rendition of “Political Science (Let’s Drop the Big One)”, Newman’s version is the best, I’m also ignoring “Mama Told Me Not to Come” by Three Dog Night, their version is superior.

            Other artists I like who maybe don’t have the best voices:

            Jimmy Webb – Singer, songwriter, I like his versions of his hits, sung by others on the hit version, and I’ll write about them as they come up on the Zune.

            Leo Kottke – I like his voice, too, even though he famously calls it sounding like “geese farts in a fog” on the liner notes of “Mudlark”. There are several vocals here on my Zune which I’ll be discussing in future postings.

            Billy Corgan – Very distinctive voice, somewhat whiny, but I like Smashing Pumpkins for other reasons as well.

            Steve Dahl – “Margarita”, good song, voice…OK.

            Trevor Horn – vocals, songwriter, The Buggles, an acquired taste.

            Warren Zevon – adequate…

            Mark Knopfler – Great duet with James Taylor on “Sailing to Philadelphia,” coming soon on Kaffred’s  Zune

            Maybe it’s because I’s easier to sing along with voices slightly better/worse than mine?

29 – I’ve got a Thing about Seeing My Grandson Grow Old – Cat Stevens – 1970

I've Got a Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old

             I first heard this song in 2002 when the Cat Stevens Box Set came out. The song itself comes from the “Mona Bone Jakon” sessions of 1970, when his sound became more introspective following his year long bout with tuberculosis.

            It reminds me of my short stint at Sonic, which I talked about a little in the very first posting (“What’s All This Then?”). I had come back there and spent some of my time downloading songs from Grokster. We were slow, the main reason we were shut down after only being in business 10-11 months.

            I remember the box set was a revelation, in that there really hadn’t been anything new from Cat (now Yusuf) since “Footsteps in the Dark”(1984), a best-of compilation that finally gave us the songs from “Harold and Maude”(there it is again) that had never appeared on any album (17-If You Want to Sing Out…). There are several songs that I’d never heard before, (“If Only Mother Could See Me Now”, “The Joke,”  and “The Day They Make me Tsar”)including his version of “Portobello Road” an early song I had only heard covered by his guitarist Alun Davies on his album “Daydo”.

            There’s even a duet with Elton John, a song called “Honey Man”, I like each of them separately, but their voices don’t blend well, to my ear.

            Had this song  (I’ve Got a Thing…) been released as a single, I’m sure Wally Phillips would have been able to wring several days out of Cat’s pronunciation of vitamin (see also, 27-“Morning Has Broken”). He uses the British pronunciation of vitt-a-min, as opposed to the American vite-a-min,

            Anyway, it’s a nice sentiment, but at 58, with a 3 year old and a 7 year old, seeing a grandson grow old may be problematic.  Maybe something along the lines of “Seeing My Grandson Change My Depends” is more likely in my future.

28 – Viva La Vida – Coldplay – 2008

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

            I think this is the newest song on my Zune, bought from the Zune Marketplace.  I don’t have any idea what the rest of the album sounds like, I only bought the song. Kind of like buying a single at the Ben Franklin back in the day. (For you young whippersnappers out there, the Ben Franklin was a five and dime store, kind of like the Dollar stores of today, but they also sold 45 rpm singles as well…”What’s a 45 rpm single old man?” “Shut up”)

            I absolutely love this song, I don’t know why. It gets multiple plays every time it comes on the Zune and I sing along every time as well. I don’t know what it’s about, or what the lyrics mean, but it has a great chorus, perfect for singing loudly in an echoing room…

                        “I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing,

Roman cavalry choirs are singing,

Be my mirror, my sword and shield,

Missionaries in a foreign field…”

            Meaning: Huh?

            It reminds me of a specific time, March-August 2009. In March, the company I worked for in Cary, Bartlett Manufacturing, went belly up. The owner gave up and shut it down, throwing 60+ people out of work. This was about 5 months after we took a 28% pay cut (which I am still trying to climb back from) to help keep it running. He had entered into an agreement with the owner of another shop in Round Lake Beach and they were supposed to keep Bartlett open for 3 months until the work there transitioned to Round Lake, but he decided to just give up and shut it down, blaming the Chinese.

            Most of the supervisors and managers at Bartlett had been offered positions at Round Lake, but I had not. I had worked there (Round Lake Beach) five years earlier for 6 months until one day I was fired. The explanation was that I had “blown off” a customer in for a visit, but I am still convinced L.S. (see Update posting) had something to do with it. I had asked another manager to cover for me with the customer as I had a particularly tricky corrective action to finish for their biggest military customer. It was for an issue that occurred a year before I got there and was very serious. I thought the CAR (corrective action report) was more important than the customer visit. I was wrong.

            Regardless, I was not expecting to get an offer to go to Round Lake. But on the very last day of Bartlett Mfg., the owner of the shop in Round Lake asked to talk to me. He started by apologizing for my getting fired (I had been fired by his President, not him), saying he had been told what they thought he wanted to hear, which he subsequently came to believe was not the whole truth. I was floored. He then offered me a job with his company, but not as a Quality Manager, since he already had one, but in a position TBD.

            This led to one of the most interesting periods in my career.

            At first, I helped the QA manager at Round Lake as a quasi-quality engineer, helping him put together PPAPs, FMEAs, and Control Plans (a bunch of paperwork gobbledygook required by Bartlett’s automotive customers, which Round Lake had no experience with at this time)

            After the closing of Bartlett it quickly became apparent that since none of the people from the punch press department took positions in Round Lake someone would be needed to run orders out at Bartlett until the presses could be moved to Round Lake, to a 17,000 sq.ft. building down the block being prepared. Among those who took jobs in Round Lake only the former president of Bartlett and I had ever set up dies and run the punch presses. The former president only stayed for a month before he left to open a rep firm, leaving me.

            I had not set up or run a press in about 15 years, when I had helped Gary Kelly (see #1-mmmm.mmmm) build boards in a small shop he set up in Elgin, less than a mile from where we then lived. I worked at Dynacircuits during the day, and then worked 4-5 hours every other night for cash at Gary’s, setting up and running silk screening, setting up and running a punch press, and doing some visual inspection.

            So, for the next 5 months, as the Bartlett building was being gutted around me, I would drive from Elgin to Cary to run the presses, and then run the finished boards up to Round Lake for inspection and shipment. There were only 3-4 other people in this 73,000 sq. ft. building, and I was by myself, pushing 500 lb. dies around and setting up 110 ton presses, running the presses, listening to my Zune in the huge echoing (thought I wouldn’t explain that, huh?) punch press room pumped through a stereo boom box I found in the abandoned front office. The phone system was disconnected so the only contact with the outside world (and the others in the building), should something happen to me, was with cell phones.

            I was 54 years old, with a bad hip, doing more physical work than I’d done in years. And it was fun! And “Viva La Vida” was a great accompaniment.

            Note: If anyone out there knows how I can link some video I took of myself (I put the video camera on a ladder as I struggled with dies and ran punch presses)doing this work, I’d greatly appreciate it.