Share You World for August 10, 2020

It’s that time again!

Melanie’s post has added a twist this week, and maybe for the foreseeable future.

The awesome blogger, Roger Shipp, is the creator and host (if you will) of the first part. He found a unique way of passing some of the quarantine time and that was from watching ALL the “Harry Potter” movies. He came up with some really fun and intriguing questions (four a week for each movie) about the movie in question. This week we visit “The Sorcerer’s Stone”.

Really? Oh, all right…

Because of the state-wide quarantines many of the local SPCA’s are having an influx of animals. You have decided that you would love to have a new pet. Would you go the normal wizardry route and pick an owl, a cat, or a toad? Or would you become a more eccentric wizard (like Hagrid, the games keeper) and seek out a three-headed dog, a dragon, or a unicorn? Please explain your answer.

I’d choose a cat, because I like cats.

Neville Longbottom was gifted a Remembrall. This was a glass ball that would assist you in maintaining memories of things that you often forget. What would you want your Remembrall to help you remember?

Nah. I’m happy with the memories I have, even if they’re wrong.

Professor Dumbledore gave Harry Potter an invisibility cloak that Dumbledore said was from Harry’s father. Now, you have inherited a cloak with similar powers. Would you use it? When?

If I had a good reason to be invisible, I might use it. I can’t think of a reason for it now.

While cleaning your attic, you have discovered the Mirror of Erised. (“Erised” is “desire” spelled backwards, as if reflected in a mirror) The Mirror of Erised is a magical mirror, which, according to Professor Dumbledore, when you gaze into it, it shows the “deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts.” You have chosen to look in the mirror. What do you see?

The teenaged me. I want to start over again.

Okay, there’s that part. Here are the answers to the regularly-scheduled questions.

Would you rather live 120 years that are comfortable but boring, or live half as long, but have an exciting, adventure packed-life? The latter. I feel like I’m living the former.

What’s something that overwhelms you? Money management in retirement.

What do or did you take for granted? My health.

See you in the funny papers!

Monday’s Music Moves Me: More Or Less Random

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I started out with one idea, which went nowhere, then thought of doing the “Wheel of Fortune” thing, and found myself changing my mind on so many songs that I decided to go in that direction. Here are ten totally unrelated songs that I just felt like playing.

  1. Bruce Blackman, “Doing Nothing”: Bruce was the lead singer for and co-founder of the band Starbuck, best known for the song “Moonlight Feels Right.” Bruce has been solo for a while and does some really great stuff. His first solo album was Moonlight Feels Right 2014, where he reprises that hit and presents us with music that puts the yacht into yacht rock. This is a song from that album.
  2. Steely Dan, “Do It Again”: From Steely Dan’s first album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, this was the first song to chart, reaching #6 on the Hot 100 and warping my 16-year-old brain to something more than The Beatles.
  3. Gerry Rafferty, “Right Down The Line”: The sometimes-forgotten follow-up to “Baker Street,” this is the second single from his 1978 album City To City. It reached #12 on the Hot 100 but #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and as I had just graduated from college and to the Adult Contemporary chart, this became part of the fabric of my life. (I know, “whatever…”)
  4. Al Stewart, “Time Passages”: Title track from Al’s 1978 album, which came out two years after Al’s Year Of The Cat, the title track of which was Al’s biggest hit. This was co-written by smooth jazz guitarist Peter White, which I didn’t know until this evening. This reached #7 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
  5. Maria Muldaur, “Midnight At The Oasis”: A sassy, sensuous song of desert delight, this features a guitar solo by Amos Garrett that had me saying, “yeah, I wanna play like that.” It reached #6 on the Hot 100 and #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1974, and was the #13 song for that year.
  6. Tommy James & The Shondells, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”: Tommy and crew are from Niles, Michigan, and were always popular in the Chicago market. This came out in June 1969 and reached #2 nationally and #1 on the WLS Silber Dollar Survey.
  7. The Rascals, “Groovin'”: Written by band members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati, this debuted in April 1967 and was the title track to their yet-to-be released third album. It reached #1 on the Hot 100 in 1967, and an instrumental by Raymond Lefevre and His Orchestra became the theme song for WGN’s Sunday Matinee, which featured “Sherlock Holmes” and “Charlie Chan” movies during the baseball offseason.
  8. The Association, “Everything That Touches You”: I was going to use The Association’s “Along Comes Mary,” then I saw this and liked it better. From their 1968 album Birthday, this reached #10 on the Hot 100.
  9. Strawberry Alarm Clock, “Incense and Peppermints”: Title track from their 1967 album. This reached #1 on the Hot 100 and is probably the only song they’re known for, although they had a second song, 1968’s “Tomorrow,” reach #23, so they’re not really a one-hit wonder.
  10. The Outsiders, “Time Won’t Let Me”: Released in 1966, this song reached #5 on the Hot 100 in April of that year. The Outsiders were a garage rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, who had three other songs reach the Top 40 that year, but none after that.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for August 10, 2020.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

Song of the Day: Fanny, “Blind Alley”

Fanny was an all-female rock group, the third of all time to be signed to a major label. Their biggest hit was “Charity Ball,” the title track from their second album from 1971. The band was June Millington on guitar and vocals, her sister Jane Millington on bass and vocals, Nickey Barclay on keyboards and vocals, and Alice de Buhr on drums and vocals. As you’ll see in a minute, these ladies could really kick out the jams. “Blind Alley” was written by Nickey Barclay and appeared on their 1972 album Fanny Hill.

Song Lyric Sunday/Song of the Day: Junior Wells, “Help Me”

Well, Jim picked a great prompt for this week, at least for me: “a song with a harmonica.” To this old harmonica player, that should be easy, but it isn’t, because my temptation is to bring the whole damn South and West Sides of Chicago with me, and I’m supposed to keep it to one. And that’s just the blues side of harmonica playing; I’m not even thinking about Toots Thielemans, a jazz player who was not only adept at the harmonica but at the guitar as well (and was an expert whistler, too), or Larry Adler, or John Barry, or Hermine Duerloo, or Lee Oskar, or Charlie McCoy, or Paul Butterfield, or Steve Katz, or John Lennon, or Mick Jagger, or Brian Jones, or Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson, or Bob Hite, or “Magic” Dick Salwitz, or Curtis Salgado, or Charlie Musselwhite, or Jerry Portnoy, or….

I did a whole Monday’s Music Moves Me on harmonica players that I hadn’t heard of back in November, which reignited the interest I had in the instrument. I bought myself a couple of harmonicas, a few diatonic ones and a chromatic one, and am trying to rebuild my embouchure and pick it up again. So far, I’m not having much luck, but I’m trying…

Anyway, today’s song is by Junior Wells, who learned how to play from Sonny Boy Williamson II before coming to Chicago in the ’50’s. He played with Muddy Waters for a time, then went off on his own. He worked frequently with Buddy Guy; in fact, during my college years, he and Buddy, along with Buddy’s brother Phil on guitar and A. C. Reed (Jimmy Reed’s brother) on saxophone, had a band going. One of Junior’s last appearances was in the movie Blues Brothers 2000. Sonny Boy wrote “Help Me,” and Junior would often do it as a tribute to his mentor.

The lyrics, from Genius:

You got to help me
Lord, I can’t do it all by myself
You got to help me, baby
Woman, I won’t do it all by myself
If you don’t help me darling
I’ll got to find myself somebody else

Listen
I might have to wash
I might have to sew
I might have to cook
I’ll even mop that floor
But you gonna help me woman
Baby, I can’t do it all by myself
If you don’t help me darling
I’ll better find myself somebody else

When I walk, walk with me
When I talk, you talk to me
Yeah baby
Woman I won’t do it all by myself
If you don’t help me darling
I’ll gotta find myself somebody else
Be cool brother

Now, Sonny Boy
I know that you can hear me
He, but I was one of your students
And you know that you thought me whether
And that’s why right here and right now
This last little verse is really going on for you

Now I don’t know if I should howl
Moan or even roam
But I do know one thing this morning
Oh, I feels so good
Baby, baby oh yes I do

Bring me my nightshirt
Put on your morning gown
Bring me my nightshirt
And put on your morning gown
Cause’ I know you’re not sleepy
But the old man feel like lying down

Let’s try it one more time

Bring me my nightshirt
Put on your morning gown
Lord, bring me on home
And put on your morning gown
Cause’ I know you’re not sleepy
But I do feel like lying down

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday and Song of the Day for August 9, 2020.