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Continue reading “The “Geez, Is October Halfway Through?” Week That Was”
Sometimes I have to give these Song Lyric Sunday entries a lot of thought. And sometimes the song comes to me the second I see the prompt. This is one of the latter ones, because the minute I saw that Helen’s prompt was “hide/hiding/hidden,” I thought of Laura Nyro‘s “Eli’s Coming” as done by one of my favorite bands of all time, Three Dog Night.
Eli’s comin’
Eli’s comin’ (Eli’s a-comin’)
Well, you better hide your heart
Your loving heart
Eli’s a-comin’, and the cards say
A broken heart
Eli’s comin’, hide your heart, girl
Eli’s comin’, hide your heart, girl
Girl, Eli’s a-comin’, you better hide
Girl, Eli’s a-comin’, you better hide
Girl, Eli’s a-comin’, you better hide
Girl, Eli’s comin’, hide your heart, girl (Hide it)
You better, better hide your heart
Eli’s comin’, better walk
Walk but you’ll never get away
No, you’ll never get away from the burnin’ a-heartache
I walked to Apollo by the bay
Everywhere I go, though
Eli’s a-comin’ (She walked, but she never got away)
Eli’s a-comin’ (She walked, but she never got away)
Eli’s a-comin’, and he’s comin’ to get ya (She walked, but, she walked, but)
Get down on your knees (She walked, but she never got away)
Eli’s comin’ (Hide it, hide it, hide it)
Girl, Eli’s a-comin’, you better hide
Girl, Eli’s a-comin’, you better hide
Girl, Eli’s a-comin’, you better hide
Girl, Eli’s comin’, hide your heart, girl (Hide it)
You better, better hide your heart
Eli’s comin’, better walk
Walk but you’ll never get away
No, you’ll never get away from the burnin’ a-heartache
I walked to Apollo by the bay
Everywhere I go, though
Eli’s a-comin’ (She walked, but she’ll never get away)
Eli’s a-comin’ (She walked, but she’ll never get away)
Eli’s a-comin’, and he’s comin’ to get ya (She walked, but, she walked, but)
Get down on your knees (She walked, but she’ll never get away)
Get down on your knees
No-no, no-no
Lord, I said no-no, no-no, no-no
(Hide it) She can
(Hide it) Hide it
(Hide it) You better
(Hide it) Somebody
(Hide it) You got to
(Hide it) Oh, my
(Hide it) Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
These lyrics are from MetroLyrics, and I was fine with them until I saw the line “I walked to Apollo by the bay.” Naturally, I thought it was a mondegreen, kind of like in CCR’s “Bad Moon Risin'” (where “There’s a bad moon on the rise” sounds like “There’s a bathroom on the right”) or Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” (where “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky” sounds like “‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy”). I checked the other lyric sites, though, and that is indeed what the lovely Ms. Nyro had written. Naturally, the next question I had was “what the h-e-double hockey sticks does ‘I walked to Apollo by the bay’ mean?” I found the answer, oddly enough, on Answers.com:
It’s a place by the water in Australia. Actually, the Temple of Apollo by the Bay of Baiae (now the Bay of Naples) was in ancient times considered to be one of the entrances to the Underworld. So Nyro may have meant nothing more by “I walked to Apollo by the Bay” than “I walked to the very end of the earth.” At this temple, visitors could ask the Sibyl (the priestess of Apollo) about their fate. So perhaps Nyro’s lyric is invoking such a pilgrimage. There is also a famous painting by JMW Turner depicting Apollo (& the Sibyl) by the Bay of Baiae, which Nyro may have had in mind.
We have to figure that was what she had in mind, because, sadly, Laura Nyro died in 1997 of ovarian cancer, leaving behind an impressive catalog of songs she wrote for other people, including Three Dog Night, The Fifth Dimension (“Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Wedding Bell Blues”) and Blood Sweat & Tears (“Hi-De-Ho”). It’s sad that she wasn’t better known for her singing and piano-playing, because she was outstanding at both, and looked good doing them, too. Here she is, doing “Eli’s Coming.”
That’s Song Lyric Sunday for October 14, 2018.
I have no idea whatever possessed Linda to choose “precious” for today’s prompt, but she’s the boss.
“Precious” isn’t a word I use often, to be honest. All that came to mind when I thought about it was “Precious Pupp,” one of the Saturday morning cartoons we used to watch all the time. It was part of The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show.
I love that laugh. So did Joseph Hanna and William Barbera, who developed Precious Pupp. When they developed the Wacky Races show, they gave the laugh to Muttley, the sidekick to Dick Dastardly, the villain of the show.
Hanna and Barbera developed lots of different cartoons, beginning with Tom and Jerry, one of the first cartoons not developed with adults in mind. A partial list of Hanna-Barbera cartoons: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick-Draw McGraw, Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy, Pixie and Dixie and Jinks the Cat, Magilla Gorilla, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, Space Ghost, Birdman… the list goes on and on, and their company (both of them have passed on) continues to develop new cartoons. H-B was affiliated with MGM Studios, which was bought by Turner Broadcasting, based here in Atlanta. I once interviewed for a job with Turner, and they offered me a position with MGM. Problem was, I’d have to relocate to Los Angeles, and since I had just relocated to Atlanta for work, I turned it down. (Mary told me she relocated once and she wasn’t going to move again. I didn’t disagree.) Turner created Cartoon Network to take advantage of this huge cartoon library, and later created Boomerang for those cartoons that Baby Boomers (e.g. me) watched when they were growing up in the ’60’s.
They don’t show cartoons on Saturday mornings like they used to. Time was all three US networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) showed cartoons from 7 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon on Saturday, and sometimes even on Sunday. Not anymore.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. Now a word about Supp-Hose ladies’ stockings. Supp-Hose stockings: Great for your ego!
My Stream of Consciousness Saturday post and last week’s Friday 5×2 brought back a lot of memories for a lot of us. Dan mentioned that one of his favorite DJ’s from the ’60’s was Jim Quinn, “The Mighty Quinn” from KQV (AM 1410, Pittsburgh), and I said maybe I should feature that station on a future Friday. In response, he sent me a whole page of links to surveys from the station. Thanks, Dan! I chose one from October 13, 1964 to share today.
This week, Kat wants to know “the first name you were almost given before your parents decided on the one you have.”
