Song Lyric Sunday: “Something Cool”

I’m going to take this week’s prompt, Cool/Groovy/Hip/Nifty/Radical/Swell, in a completely different direction than just about everyone else. At least, I hope so.

June Christy is a favorite singer of mine. She got her start singing with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, one of the big names in West Coast or “cool” jazz. She met husband Pete Rugolo when he was with the band, and when June decided to go solo he helped her record her first album, 1952’s Something Cool. In 1953, the album was expanded to 12 songs from 7, and in 1954 she recorded the album in stereo; this is the version that caught on and brought her to prominence. The title track was written by Billy Barnes. From a 1959 appearance on Playboy After Dark, Miss June Christy, “Something Cool.”

The lyrics, from Genius:

Something cool
Something cool
Something cool
I’d like to order something cool!

Something cool, (something cool)
I’d like to order something cool, (something cool)
It’s so warm here in town
And the heat gets me down
Yes, I’d like something cool! (something cool)

My! It’s nice to simply sit and rest awhile
Now I know it’s a shame
I can’t think of your name
I remember your smile!

I don’t ordinarily drink with strangers
I most usually drink alone
You were so awfully nice to me
And I’m so terribly far from home

Like my dress? I must confess it’s terribly old
But it’s simple and neat
It’s just right for the heat
Save my furs for the cold!

A cigarette? Well I don’t smoke them as a rule
But I’ll have one
It might be fun
With something cool!

I’ll bet you couldn’t imagine
That I one time had a house
With so many rooms I couldn’t count them all!
I’ll bet you couldn’t imagine
I had fifteen different beaus
Who would beg and beg to take me to a ball

I’ll bet you couldn’t picture me
The time I went to Paris in the Fall
And who would think the man I loved was quite so handsome
Quite so tall?

Well it’s true, (something cool)
It’s just a memory I have, (something cool)
One I almost forgot
‘Cause the weather’s so hot!
And I’m feeling so bad (something cool)
About a date
Oh wait!
I’m such a fool!
He’s just a guy
Who’s stopped to buy
Me something cool!

That’s Song Lyric Sunday for May 26, 2019.

She’s The Pride of the Neighborhood #socs

Today’s prompt is “rhymes with rosy,” which is good, because it gives me an excuse to play this one: from their 1977 album Aja, Steely Dan, “Josie.”

I never paid much attention to the lyrics, because the guitar playing is just so damn tasty, but here they are:

We’re gonna break out the hats and hooters
When Josie comes home
We’re gonna rev up the motor scooters
When Josie comes home to stay
We’re gonna park in the street
Sleep on the beach and make it
Throw down the jam till the girls say when
Lay down the law and break it
When Josie comes home

When Josie comes home
So good
She’s the pride of the neighborhood
She’s the raw flame
The live wire
She prays like a Roman
With her eyes on fire

Jo would you love to scrapple
She’ll never say no
Shine up the battle apple
We’ll shake ’em all down tonight
We’re gonna mix in the street
Strike at the stroke of midnight
Dance on the bones till the girls say when
Pick up what’s left by daylight
When Josie comes home

When Josie comes home
So bad
She’s the best friend we ever had
She’s the raw flame
The live wire
She prays like a Roman
With her eyes on fire

When Josie comes home
So good
She’s the pride of the neighborhood
She’s the raw flame
The live wire
She prays like a Roman
With her eyes on fire

So, from whence does Josie come home? Prison? College? The Big City, where she sought fame and fortune and found them? Who cares? She’s coming home…

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. Now a word about Kellogg’s Product 19 cereal. Wanna get back on the young side? Start with Product 19.

Talk about being unintentionally suggestive….

The Friday 5×2: Radio Veronica, 5/23/70

Let’s go back to the Netherlands and Radio Veronica, broadcasting from a ship near Hilversum. Here’s their Top 10 for this week in 1970. I like this because there are a lot of songs I’ve never heard before today, which means they’ll probably be new to you too.

  1. Soulful Dynamics, “Mademoiselle Ninette” Soulful Dynamics was a septet that was formed in 1965 in Liberia and moved to Hamburg in 1969. This is the song they’re best known for.
  2. Blue Mink, “Good Morning Freedom” A sextet from England, Blue Mink had six Top 20 hit records in the UK between 1969 and 1974. One song, “Our World,” reached #64 on the Hot 100 and got some airplay in the US in 1971.
  3. The Shoes, “Osaka” The Shoes were a Dutch “Nederbeat” band; here in the US we call them “garage rock.” They started in 1963 as The White Shoes, and are still performing, 56 years later.
  4. Norman Greenbaum, “Spirit In The Sky” Finally, a song you might have heard before. This was a huge hit in the US, where it reached #3 nationally and occupied the #1 spot in Chicago on WCFL on March 16 and at WLS on March 23. Not bad for a good Jewish boy…
  5. Earth and Fire, “Ruby Is The One” Earth and Fire was a Dutch progressive and symphonic rock band that was fronted by Christina Henriette “Jerney” Kaagman, who later headed the Dutch musician’s union BV Pop (so saith Wikipedia).
  6. Frijid Pink, “House of the Rising Sun” A psychedelic rock band from Detroit, this was the third single issued by the band in 1969, and as they say, third time’s a charm. It reached the Top 10 in the US, #4 in the UK, and #3 in Canada. The band continues to perform and record, albeit with non of its original members.
  7. Steve Rowland and The Family Dogg, “Sympathy” The Family Dogg was a British vocal group that included Albert “It Never Rains in Southern California” Hammond.
  8. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Up Around The Bend” Was a double-sided single in the US with “Run Through The Jungle,” and it reached #4 here.
  9. Simon and Garfunkel, “Cecilia” I remember that most of my friends and I despised this song in eighth grade, and today, almost 50 years later, I’m still not especially fond of it. Nevertheless, it reached #4 in the US and topped the chart in The Netherlands.
  10. Simon and Garfunkel, “El Condor Pasa” I had to look twice at the chart to see if this was a double-sided hit for S&G with ‘Cecilia,” but no, they were two separate records. This only reached #18 in the US but, again, topped the chart in The Netherlands.

And that’s The Friday 5×2 for May 24, 2019.

Writer’s Workshop: Part of This Complete Breakfast!

We’ll return to this week’s Writers Workshop after these messages.

I like what they describe as a “complete breakfast” (or a “nutritious breakfast” or a “balanced breakfast”): a bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice, a glass of milk, and two pieces of white toast with butter. That’s the way we ate back then, and somehow we avoided getting too fat. I know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I don’t think that means a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Mary and I went to visit some friends, Greg and Laura, in Minneapolis one weekend. Greg and I were in the pipe band together, and Laura and Mary suffered through the road trips with us. They met us at the airport, and he says to me, “hey, remember when we were kids and we’d sit in front of the TV eating Lucky Charms and watching cartoons on Saturday morning? Let’s do that again!” So we stopped at the grocery store on our way to their house and bought a box of Lucky Charms and a gallon of milk. The next morning, Saturday, we got up, turned on the TV and found Bugs Bunny, and each of us poured ourselves a bowl of Lucky Charms with milk. We sat down in front of the TV and took a bite of the Lucky Charms. And we looked at each other like, “we used to eat this stuff?” But we finished the whole box, anyway (it was a small box, so that meant about two bowls each). Can’t let good Lucky Charms go to waste. There are children starving in Africa, after all.