I’ve heard and heard of Patsy Cline since I can remember. Where I live, she has never been forgotten. She was and still is a huge country star, but I never really considered a lot of her music pure country. I don’t mean that as a put-down, but it also had some jazz influence in there. One of the best voices in music, period.
She was born Virginia Patterson Hensley. Known in her youth as “Ginny,” she began to sing with local country bands while a teenager, sometimes accompanying herself on guitar. By the time she had reached her early 20s, Cline was promoting herself as “Patsy” and was on her way toward music stardom.
This song wasn’t a Patsy Cline-written song. It came from a young Willie Nelson, still trying to get a break in Nashville. He wrote it as a slow ballad, built around a melody that moved in ways most country songs at the time didn’t. Nelson pitched it around town, and it eventually reached producer Owen Bradley, who was creating what became known as the Nashville Sound: smoother arrangements, piano, light rhythm, and restrained backing vocals.
When Cline first heard it, she wasn’t much into it. The melody felt awkward, the phrasing didn’t land right, and it didn’t sit naturally in her voice on the first try. But Bradley heard something in it and pushed forward. The session took place at Bradley’s Quonset Hut studio in 1961. There was a problem from the start. Cline had recently been in a car accident and still had bruised ribs. That mattered because the song required long, controlled lines and soft phrasing, the kind that needs steady breath support.
The band included pianist Floyd Cramer, whose playing style gave the song its gentle feel. Cline struggled on the first attempts. The phrasing, especially the opening line, “Crazy, I’m crazy for feeling so lonely,” kept slipping out of place. They stopped the session and came back later. When she returned, she approached it differently by stretching the lines.
That second take is the one that stuck. The way she adapted it to her style because of the injuries ended up helping it. She doesn’t oversing it. She lets the pauses sit and it worked out beautifully. The song became one of Cline’s defining recordings and one of the most well-known songs in country and pop crossover history. It also helped establish Nelson as a songwriter to watch, even before his own recording career took off.
The song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Billboard Country Charts, and #8 in Canada in 1961.
Crazy
Crazy I’m crazy for feelin’ so lonely
I’m crazy Crazy for feelin’ so blue
I knew You’d love me as long as you wanted And then someday You’d leave me for somebody new
Worry Why do I let myself worry
Wonderin’ What in the world did I do?
Oh… crazy For thinking that my love could hold you I’m crazy for trying And crazy for crying And I’m crazy for loving you Crazy For thinking that my love could hold you I’m crazy for trying And crazy for crying And I’m crazy for loving You
Like with Bessie Smith, I keep coming back to this voice. In this one, she reminds me a little of Smith. Holiday’s voice could be aggressive or laid back, but always full of meaning and soul.
Holiday could truly call this song her own from top to bottom. She wrote it herself in 1939, at a time when much of her material came from professional songwriters and Tin Pan Alley publishers. This was the B-Side to Strange Fruit, but this song went on to become known as well.
This song was different because it came directly from her own life, built around a blues structure that fit her voice. Holiday had lived through enough difficult relationships by then that the words carried more weight than a typical mistreated song.
Though it was not one of her biggest commercial hits, it stayed with Holiday throughout her career. She returned to it often in live performances because it gave her room to interpret the story differently as she aged. By the 1950s, her voice had changed, rougher and more worn, but that only added credence to the song.
The most famous later version came in 1957 when Holiday appeared on the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz. Surrounded by an all-star lineup that included Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, and Lester Young, Holiday delivered a performance that many consider one of the most moving moments in television music history.
She took this simple blues song and made it feel like a private memory shared with the public.
Here is Billie singing Fine and Mellow in 1957 on The Sound Of Jazz. The entire show is up there if you want to watch it. It is incredible. She would pass away only two years after this was recorded. This is my go-to version of this song.
Fine and Mellow
My man don’t love me Treats me oh so mean My man he don’t love me Treats me awfully He’s the lowest man That I’ve ever see
He wears high trimmed pants Stripes are really yellow He wears high trimmed pants Stripes are really yellow But when he starts in to love me He’s so fine and mellow
Love will make you drink and gamble Make you stay out all night long Love will make you drink and gamble Make you stay out all night long Love will make you do things That you know is wrong
But if you treat me right baby I’ll stay home everyday If you treat me right baby I’ll stay home everyday But you’re so mean to me baby I know you’re gonna drive me away
Love is just like the faucet It turns off and on Love is like the faucet It turns off and on Sometimes when you think it’s on baby It has turned off and gone
First of all, no, this is not about the 1997 movie! Speaking of which, if you want to see more of the true story of the Titanic through a movie (though I highly recommend a documentary or better yet a book), watch A Night to Remember, which was filmed in 1958. Titanic experts have said that the 1958 movie is closer to the truth than the 1997 movie. What brought this up again on my radar was Titanic’s 114th anniversary on April 15, 2026. I felt like a kid again reading about this once great ship. This was one of my loves as a kid.
Along with growing up with baseball, dinosaurs, and The Beatles…I had other interests. The Titanic was so interesting to me because it was such a mystery. I was also interested in her two sister ships, The Olympic and the Britannic. I’ve read a lot of books and watched countless documentaries on the Titanic. One of my first non-Beatles books I ever read was the book by Walter Lord namedA Night To Remember (the one they made the movie about). I’m reading one now called On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic, and I would highly recommend it. It’s probably the best book I’ve ever read on this subject. You get to know the human side of this, which has been missing.
She was built well with new watertight compartments. Today’s ships have that feature. I remember the day in 1985 when they found her. I was so excited, but also bummed that she split in half while sinking. Although many said that the ship did split in half at the 1912 hearings, they were ignored, but were vindicated decades later. Why does this continue to interest me? I can’t tell you why.
The Titanic and her older sister, Olympic. They were hard to tell apart, but the Titanic was slightly larger and heavier; both were 882 feet and 9 inches long. Most of the pictures you see of the “Titanic” are really of the Olympic.
It was a safe ship, but its Achilles heel was found with that iceberg. Some modern ships would sink as well if the same damage happened. The Titanic had 16 watertight compartments and could take 4 of them being breached, but 6 were breached, and it was going to sink. It wasn’t a huge gash but just puncture marks. She took 2:40 minutes to sink; they have done tests with other ships of the period, and most sink within an hour or way less with the same damage. There are so many stories from that ship. I wanted to post this and see if there would be any interest in hearing some of the stories in future posts.
I’ll give you one story in this post, a short one. Isidor and Ida Straus sailed on this ship. They owned Macy’s Department Store. Isidor Straus was a co-owner of Macy’s and had served as a U.S. Congressman. He and his wife, Ida, were returning from Europe in April 1912, traveling first class on the Titanic. By all accounts, they were devoted to each other after more than 40 years of marriage.
When the ship struck the iceberg, and it became clear that lifeboats would be needed, the rule of “women and children first” was enforced. One of the officers did “women and children only” and sent half empty boats down. Ida was offered a seat in a lifeboat, and Isidor, as a man, was expected to remain behind. At first, Ida stepped toward the lifeboat. But when she realized her husband would not be allowed to go with her, she refused to leave him. She reportedly said words that have been passed down in different forms (where you go, I go), but the meaning is clear: she would not be separated from him after a lifetime together.
Isidor also refused special treatment. He was told he could take a place in a boat because his age and prominence, but he declined, saying he would not go before other men who were in greater need. Ida then gave her seat in the lifeboat to her maid, Ellen Bird, and even handed over her fur coat, telling her she would not need it anymore.
The last widely accepted account is that the two were seen sitting together on deck chairs, calm in the middle of chaos, waiting as the ship went down. Other accounts say they were seen holding hands near the railing as the end came. Either way, they chose to remain together rather than be separated.
Isidor’s body was later recovered at sea. Ida’s body was never found.
Their story became a symbol of loyalty and sacrifice at the time, often compared to the dignity shown by others that night. That included the ship’s musicians who continued playing as the situation worsened. In the years since, the Strauses have been remembered for what they valued most, staying together to the end.
When the maid made it home, she went to the daughter of the Straus family, Sara Straus. The maid (Ellen Bird) offered the coat back to the family, but the daughter said no. She told her that her mom wanted her to have it and to keep it in her memory.
The Titanic had heroes, like the crew who worked in the engine rooms to keep the lights on until the final plunge. They all lost their life. If those lights had not been on, many more would have perished. It’s an interesting ship and human story.
Titanic finds her voice again with 3 of her whistles salvaged from the ocean floor. The ship had 3 sets of three whistles. This one is a complete set. It didn’t take too much work to make these work again. It had not been heard since 1912.
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
The dance macabre, or the dance of death, was an allegorical motif in medieval art to remind us that death is everywhere and unexpected. In this one, we have Mary Morris playing Number 2. The Village is trying to extract information from Number 6, who is under electronic hypnosis. They have an older colleague (number 42) of Number 6 asking him for information, but it doesn’t work. Number 2 makes it clear she doesn’t want Number 6 broken, but for him to agree voluntarily. This episode feels like it should have been earlier in the series.
Following a seemingly impromptu yet half-hearted escape attempt that leaves him collapsed on the beach, Number Six awakes to find that a dead man has washed up on the shore. This Number Six uses some kind of radio on the body in an attempt to contact the outside world about his plight. Of course, though, the Village knows about it already.
While all of this is going on, preparations are underway for a strange Carnival celebration, complete with masks, costumes, and a sense that the entire Village is waiting for some kind of performance. The episode never fully explains every detail, which gives it a dreamlike quality, as though Number Six has stepped into a ritual that has happened many times before. Number 6 does some spy work before that, exploring some rooms. He finds the man who washed ashore, whose info the village has altered the dead man’s info so when he is “found,” they will think it’s Number 6.
As the celebration begins, the atmosphere turns darker. The Carnival becomes a public trial, with Number Six placed in front of the crowd and forced into a role he never agreed to play. The villagers act as spectators and participants at the same time, blurring the line between justice and entertainment. He does call his old friend (dressed as a court jester) as a witness, but the village has destroyed him completely. He looks more like a living dead man. Like many episodes of The Prisoner, this one is less about plot and more about mood, control, and the way the Village tries to rewrite a person’s sense of reality. Be Seeing You!
Thought I would cover Paul Kelly today with this rock song Darling It Hurts. I’m starting to know his music more and more now. His Christmas song How To Make Gravy has been on my list since 2022. With this song, yes, I love that guitar, but that organ is what hooked me on this one. He kept the organ right below the surface, and it fits. Below is a quick rundown of Paul.
Paul Kelly was born in Adelaide, Australia, and began performing in Hobart in 1974. By 1976, he had relocated to Melbourne, working the pub circuit before forming the Dots, who released Talk (1981) and Manila (1982). He moved to Sydney in 1984 and, alongside Steve Connolly and Ian Rilen, released Post in 1985. The following year, he formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls and released Gossip (1986). The band later regrouped as Paul Kelly and the Messengers, issuing Gossip in the United States and following it with Under the Sun in 1987.
In 1993, Kelly published Lyrics, a collection of his songwriting, and continued evolving his sound with a new lineup that included Shane O’Mara, Bruce Haymes, Peter Luscombe, Stephen Hadley, and Spencer Jones. He has remained consistently active, continuing to record and release new material. His most recent album, Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train, arrived in 2021. Over the course of his career, Kelly has released 28 studio albums, along with 6 live albums, 8 compilations, and 64 singles.
This song was off his album Gossip, released in 1986. The song peaked at #19 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. The album peaked at #15 in Australia and #34 in New Zealand. The album was in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
This link will take you to a live version that YouTube would not let me embed.
Darling It Hurts
I see you standing on the corner with your dress so high And all the cars slow down as they go driving by Thought you said you had some place to go What you doing up here putting it all on show? Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight
Do you remember Darling how we laughed and cried We said we’d be together till the day we die How could something so good turn so bad? I’d do it all again ‘coz you’re the best I’ve ever had Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight
See that man with the glad hands I want to kill him but it wouldn’t be right Now here comes another man with the glad bags I want to break him but it’s not my fight In one hand and out the other Baby I don’t even know why you bother Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight
I see you standing on the corner with your dress so high And all the cars slow down as they go driving by In one hand and out the other Baby I don’t even know why you bother Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight
When I first started to pay attention to the lyrics to this song…I would have bet Mr. Fogerty wrote it under the influence while looking out his back door. John said the song was written for his son Josh, who at the time was three years old. It was inspired by the Dr. Seuss book And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street. In the book, a kid is watching a parade go by with wondrous and magical animals and characters. Fogerty put the action “out my back door” to a place he could escape to.
I always loved the country feel of this song. It mixes country and some psychedelic lyrics. It sounded like a lot of John Fogerty songs from that period, it sounds simple on the surface but has a little more going on underneath than people think. It was released as a single along with Long As I Can See the Light, and it climbed high at a time when the band couldn’t seem to miss. What a single as well…doubt A-Side no doubt.
It is notable as the only time the country-style resonator guitar was used on a CCR recording. Fogerty purchased the Regal dobro from George Gruhn in Nashville after meeting bluegrass player Tut Taylor.
Here is what it is
The song was on the album Cosmo’s Factory… arguably Creedence’s best album. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1969. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada. To show you the fickled charts, CCR never had a number one hit song. Could it have been just bad luck? Could it have been that Fantasy didn’t push them hard enough or that Capitol, RCA, and WB’s songs were a bigger priority to play?
They did hit number one in 2021. Have You Ever Seen The Rain topped the Rock Digital Song Sales chart in July 2021, over 50 years after its release, following a resurgence on social media.
Lookin’ Out My Back Door
Just got home from Illinois lock the front door oh boy! Got to sit down take a rest on the porch. Imagination sets in pretty soon I’m singin’
Doo doo doo lookin’ out my back door.
There’s a giant doing cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels. Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn. A dinosaur Victrola list’ning to Buck Owens.
Doo doo doo lookin’ out my back door.
Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band. Won’t you take a ride on the flyin’ spoon? Doo doo doo. Wond’rous apparition provided by magician.
Doo doo doo lookin’ out my back door.
Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band. Won’t you take a ride on the flyin’ spoon? Doo doo doo. Bother me tomorrow, today, I’ll buy no sorrows.
Doo doo doo lookin’ out my back door.
Forward troubles Illinois, lock the front door oh boy! Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn. Bother me tomorrow, today, I’ll buy no sorrows.
This song is a burst of street music with a saxophone leading the way and a great groove. It has a sprawling feel like some Springsteen, Van Morrison, and Thin Lizzy had. I heard this band a lot growing up with songs like Weekend and Keep On Smiling, probably their biggest hit. Their lead singer, Jimmy Hall, has a hell of a voice as well.
When I posted about them before…I’ll say the same thing. First, let’s get this out of the way… wet–willy. Noun. (plural wet willies) (slang) A prank whereby a saliva-moistened finger is inserted into an unsuspecting person’s ear, often with a slight twisting motion… Oh yes…I’ve given them and have been on the receiving end. When you are 12, given wet willies were/are a lot of fun….oh wait…that was yesterday!
Wet Willie began as a blues-rock band during the Summer of 1969 in Mobile, Alabama. The original nucleus of the group that eventually became known as Wet Willie was called Fox. Wet Willie eventually moved to Macon, Georgia, and signed to Capricorn Records, sharing the label with The Allman Brothers and The Marshall Tucker Band. Still, they really didn’t have a Southern rock sound.
The song was written by Jimmy Hall, the band’s lead singer and harmonica player. He built it around something simple, a street musician playing for spare change, trying to get through the day. Hall’s vocal carries that idea. There’s a sense of distance in it, but also some understanding of the situation.
The track connected on the radio, which helped push their 1977 album Mannorisms up a bit. It also gave the band a song that defined them for a lot of listeners. Over time, it’s held up as a snapshot of that moment when Southern rock still had room for R&B, gospel, and bar band roots all at once. The song peaked at #30 on the Billboard 100 and #30 in Canada in 1977.
Street Corner Serenade
Down on the corner back in my home town Me and the fellows used to gather round We sang a song with a happy beat I can still hear that harmony
When we sang de de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa Yeah, yeah De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa
Guido, he’s the one that sang down low Crazy Johnny was a baritone I’m the one who took the lead And Little Jackie made our song complete
When he sang de de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Make me feel all right) De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (I can sing all night) De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa
When a pretty girl would come strolling by We’d try so hard to catch her eye When she stopped to check us out That’s when we really sing it out loud
Like this: De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Make me feel all right) De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Oh, yeah, yeah) De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Come on, sing it now) De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa
I still think about those happy days And our street corner serenade Maybe someday we’ll get together again Down on the corner, me and my old friends
We’ll sing de de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Make me feel all right)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (We could sing all night)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Come on, sing it with me)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Come on and feel all right)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Come on people, now)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (just sing it with me) De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Come on and feel all right)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa Yeah yeah
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa I can sing all night
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa Yeah
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
De de de de deet Whoa, whoa, whoa (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
This song has the effect on me that an Otis Redding song would. It makes me feel good, and it has a 50s – 60s R&B sound to it, at least to me. Also, the groove is infectious. They kept the structure simple and let the groove carry it. César Rosas handles the vocals, and the band keeps everything locked in behind him like a machine.
This song appeared in 1987 on By the Light of the Moon, the album they released in the same year as the success of La Bamba. That put the band in a different spot. They suddenly had a wider audience, but instead of repeating that sound, they went back to something closer to their roots, mixing rock and roll with R&B and older influences they grew up on in East L.A.
Los Lobos (Spanish for “The Wolves”) started in the early 1970s in East Los Angeles. High school friends David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Cesar Rosas, and Conrad Lozano started playing together. The guy who brought them together was Francisco González. He left the band before fame and became the musical director of El Teatro Campesino and went on to start Guadalupe Custom Strings. They started off by playing top 40 music, but soon tired of that. They drew inspiration from the Mexican folk music they heard as kids. They didn’t fit into the typical rock band mold… instead, they experimented with acoustic instruments like the jarana,requinto, and bajo sexto.
They opened for such artists as The Clash and The Blasters. Steve Berlin, who was born in Philadelphia, played saxophone for the Blasters and then left the group to join Los Lobos. To his delight, he found the other members of Los Lobos shared a love for country artists such as Hank Williams and George Jones. The band mixed so many styles…Mexican folk music, country, and rock all in the same bag.
This song peaked at #21 on the Mainstream Rock Charts, #45 in New Zealand, and #99 in the UK in 1987.
Set Me Free (Rosa Lee)
When love’s in vain, love can be so strange There ain’t nothing I can take to kill this pain Set me free Why don’t you, Rosa Lee?
She is a dream, but she’s so hard to please She moves around like an Egyptian queen Set me free Why don’t you, Rosa Lee?
I’m so afraid of losing you But there’s only so much that a man can do For Rosa Lee Why don’t you set me free?
When I hit the road the time goes slow Thinking about the places I used to go With Rosa Lee Why won’t you set me free?
They’re trying to close the Tu y Yo The Latin playboy and the sky room shows Rosa Lee Why don’t they let them be?
I can’t get used to losing you But there’s only so much that a man can do For Rosa Lee Why don’t you set me free?
People say that you were made for me I knocked my head [?] But they’ll never know the hurt it takes to be Rosa Lee
When love’s in vain, love can be so strange But I never thought I’d wear a ball and chain Set me free Why don’t you, Rosa Lee?
Set me free Why don’t you, Rosa Lee? Why don’t you set me free Why don’t you Rosa Lee, yeah
Why don’t you set free, why don’t you set free You got to set me free You got to, you got to, you got to set free, baby, ah, yeah, ooh
Viktor E. Frankl: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way
A friend recommended this for me, and I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a true story about a Jewish doctor who was in concentration camps during WW2. This guy was something special. He flat-out refused to be labeled as a victim after it was over and up to his death. His Jewish peers didn’t always like this, but Frankl moved on with his life and used his experience in the concentration camps to help people and to write this book.
He purposely left out the more gruesome details of his experience. He said in the book that you can easily look that up if you want to hear those details. Don’t get me wrong, it was still some of the worst experiences that you can imagine. The book has me thinking about how to handle situations better. You can really learn a lot from this.
Frankl was a psychiatrist in Vienna before World War II, already developing ideas about meaning and purpose as central to human psychology. That work was interrupted when he and his family were deported to Nazi concentration camps, including the Auschwitz concentration camp and later the Dachau concentration camp. His parents, brother, and pregnant wife did not survive. Frankl spent years moving through camps, observing not just suffering, but how different people responded to it.
While imprisoned, Frankl began shaping what would later become his theory of logotherapy (a meaning-centered psychotherapy focused on helping individuals overcome distress by finding purpose in life, even amidst suffering), the idea that the primary human drive is not pleasure or power, but the search for meaning. He paid close attention to prisoners who maintained a sense of purpose, even in small ways, and noted how that often affected their ability to endure.
After being freed in 1945, Frankl returned to Vienna. Within about nine days, he dictated the manuscript that would become Man’s Search for Meaning. The original German title was …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen (“…Nevertheless Say Yes to Life”). It was first published in 1946, initially with modest expectations, as one of many postwar accounts of camp life.
The book is split into two parts. The first is a direct account of life in the camps, not focused on historical detail, but on the psychological experience of prisoners. The second part introduces logotherapy in a structured way, explaining how meaning can be found through work, love, or even suffering itself.
Over time, the book found a much wider audience, especially after English translations began circulating in the 1950s. It stood apart from other Holocaust memoirs because it wasn’t just what they went through. It was an attempt to answer a larger question: how can people continue when everything is taken from them?
By the late 20th century, it became one of the most widely read books in psychology and personal development, selling millions of copies. It continues to be used in therapy, education, and leadership discussions as something tested under extreme conditions.
He wrote it as someone who lived through what he was trying to understand and thankfully passed it to us. If you even think you are having a bad day, it could probably always be worse.
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
This episode is in my top 3 episodes. The beginning of this one surprised me. It opens with the Village feeling empty for once. Number Six wakes up, walks outside, and finds no guards, no announcements, no smiling faces watching him. For a moment, it looks like the whole place has shut down, and he finally has a clean path out. He takes supplies, follows the shoreline, and escapes by boat, pushing forward with the cautious hope that this time it’s real. This is what I have been waiting for through the series so far, and now he will get to leave.
He makes it back to London and walks into a world that should feel familiar, but doesn’t. His old life isn’t the same: his home, his friends, his old co-workers all seem slightly off. On top of that, a lady named Miss Butterworth is living in his home now and driving his car.
The people around him act like they know him, but they don’t react the way he expects, and he doesn’t get straight answers. The episode shows how hard it is for him to trust anything after the Village. Even freedom can feel staged when you’ve been trapped long enough.
The final segment drives home the episode’s point. The escape is part of the experiment, another method to test him, track him, and see what he’ll do when he thinks he’s safe. This one is less about action and more about doubt, how the Village follows him even when it isn’t there. Number Six ends up back where he started, not because he gives up, but because the trap is built to reset. The birthday greeting isn’t a joke; it’s a reminder that the system has patience and it can wait.
This episode was originally to be directed by Michael Truman (who fell ill); McGoohan took over directorial duties himself, crediting the result to ‘Joseph Serf’. Be Seeing You!
I haven’t posted these guys in a couple of years. This one hits you from the start. With that title of the song, I had to post this one. I posted a song called The End by them in 2023, and this album has been on my playlist since. At the time, I couldn’t decide which song to write about, so I came back to this one.
The member I have covered the most out of this band is an artist named Alejandro Escovedo, a Texas singer-songwriter who has been around since the early seventies. I’ve had their album The Pawn Shop Years on my playlist for a couple of years now, and it’s fantastic. The band was named after the T. Rex song Buick MacKane and I see the similarities.
Buick MacKane was essentially Alejandro Escovedo stepping away from the more polished feel of his solo work and into something looser and louder. The band’s album The Pawn Shop Years was recorded quickly, with a live feel, and this song fits right into that approach. Buick MacKane was a way for Escovedo to reconnect with the bar-band energy he came up with in earlier groups like Rank and File and The True Believers.
They formed in 1989 and began perfecting songs live that would be recorded and released in 1997. They mostly played around Austin, and they were a mix of garage and glam rock… and it sounds great. Escovedo had just broken up with his band The True Believers when all of this happened. They were popular in Austin, and they had some trouble getting people to accept Buick MacKane because they thought it would be The True Believers part two.
If you want to hear a 1990s rock album that sounds like the early seventies…this is the one. Instead of checking out a few songs…check out the album. I also included the album below on Spotify.
Alejandro Escovedo –“People say, ‘Man, there aren’t bands like you guys anymore,’ and it’s nice, because there’s a lot of this kinda hippie stuff, and then every girl has a guitar and hates men. And we just wanna rock, you know.”
I can’t find a live version of this song…But The End is a great one as well.
It’s been a long while since I posted a Cat Stevens number. One of the first albums I had was Tea For The Tillerman. I got it for one song, Wild World but heard so many others off the album that were just as good. His music makes me feel calm and relaxed, but not in a boring way.
The song grew out of Stevens’ surroundings at this time. Britain was changing fast, with a lot of focus on growth and progress. He started questioning what was being traded away. Instead of writing a protest song in the usual sense, he kept it simple. The lyrics ask a question and then keep circling back to it: What happens when everything is built up, and there’s no space left for kids to just be kids?
Musically, it’s stripped down. Acoustic guitar carries most of it, with light orchestration that never gets in the way. That was part of the approach Stevens and producer Paul Samwell-Smith used on the album. Let the song do the work. No excess, no push. It sounds calm, but the message underneath it isn’t.
What’s interesting is how the song has held up. It wasn’t released as a major single, but it became one of the key tracks on Tea for the Tillerman. Over time, it’s been picked up in films, environmental discussions, and documentaries because the song is still relevant. The idea of progress versus what gets lost along the way hasn’t gone anywhere.
He just asked the question and left it there for us to decide. That’s probably why people keep coming back to it.
As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of dogs and animals in general. Will I hug a King Cobra? No, but I do love animals. Dogs (yes, I’m counting the prairie variety as well) are part of that list, and I’ve probably been closer to dogs than to any other animal. I started to think…hmmm…what are some songs that were about dogs? I’ll keep this brief except for the Neil Young description…he rambles a bit.
The Bottle Rockets – I Love My Dog
The Bottle Rockets came out of Festus, Missouri, in the early 1990s. They were part of the wave that later got labeled alt-country. At the time, it was just a bunch of bands mixing country, rock, and whatever else they grew up on. Brian Henneman had been around the scene already, even doing a stint as a guitar tech and occasional player for Uncle Tupelo, which put him right in the middle of that movement as it was forming.
Just a person, and their dog, and the sense that the dog might be the most dependable thing in their life. There is some humor in this, but it never turns into a jokey kind of song. I also love the jangle that came with this song. I’m going to revisit this band in the future. It’s hard to resist this video, especially with Carlene Carter and her dog Sparky starting it off!
This is such a cool video and song. Many happy humans, along with their owners.
Cat Stevens – I Love My Dog
This song was released in 1966 as a single and the following year on Stevens’ debut album Matthew and Son. He wrote the lyrics to the music of Yusef Lateef’s song The Plum Blossom. He credited the song to Lateef, and they shared the songwriting royalties. The song peaked at #28 in the UK, #47 in Canada, and #118 on the Billboard 100 in 1966.
Beatles – Martha My Dear
Our Saint Bernard was named after this song. Paul McCartney wrote this song about his English Sheepdog. Paul got the dog in 1966, and Martha lived a long life with Paul until 1981. Paul had Martha’s descendants, but I’m not sure about them currently. Paul has said that the riff to this song is one of the most difficult ones he came up with on piano. The song has a special place in my household. In fact, she is under my feet now as I type this.
Neil Young – Old King
This one is about Neil’s dog named Elvis. It was released in 1992 on the Harvest Moon album. This Neil Young quote is from a concert talking about this song. It’s rambling…but it’s Neil!
Neil Young: “This a song about my dog. His name is Elvis. Elvis is riding on Jimi Hendrix’s bus now. He traveled with me for many years. Well, I changed his name to ‘King’ in the song to avoid any confusion. Elvis had quite a nose. That was his whole thing, was his nose. But, you know, he was very sensitive about it. I’ll tell you a little story about him. He used to go on the road with me all the time, and, you know, he kind of smelled like a hound, ’cause… he was a hound. But it smelled good to him, and uh, you know, we would take him to a veterinarian’s place or something, and they’d clean him up a little bit so when he got on the bus, he wasn’t too comfy, you know?
After a while we all kind of got used to each other on the bus, so it was okay, but right at first he was a little strong, so. . . so anyway, once, uh, someone took him that usually doesn’t take him and took him to some fifi dog place. He came back smelling, uh, kinda like some bad toilet paper or something? Non-environmental and all. It had this odor to it that was like,(groaning)’oh no, wow.’ He kind of smelled like one of those things that hang on people’s mirrors, you know, that smell? Anyway, it was bad for me, but to him it was hell, ’cause he was, you know, sensitive.
And uh, so I was sleeping on the side of the road, I was on my way out to Eureka, California to play this gigantic gig… And ah, uh, you know, he woke me up, it was about six o’clock in the morning, I get this nose, you know, ‘snnnfff, snnnffff, snnff, snnff,’ He woke me up… I’m going, ‘What’s happening?
It’s this, this big nose, it’s lookin’ at me, kinda, you know, desperate. You know, I said, ‘God, you smell terrible. You stink.’ And he knew he stunk. He wanted off the bus. He said, ‘I want to go roll in some cowshit on the side of the road.So, you know, he was a smart dog, and he was purebred, actually, he was a beautiful hound, and uh, he had all his senses that he needed, he knew how to get back. You know, hounds will circle, uh, an area, and keep going in wider and wider circles, and they count how many times, somehow they know how many times they’ve been around it, so when they come back in they just count it like the, like the lifelines on a tree or somethin’, you know, you just come right back in and, right to the core and that’s where you started from, you know. Anyway, he knew that. He taught me that. And uh, so, I said, ‘Okay Elvis, take a shot.
He took off, I let him go. And uh, there’s only one thing that can go wrong if you do that. That’s if it rains, then, and then he can’t find his way back, ’cause he can’t smell over the little rains, you know. He just loses it. So, he lost it, he got lost. It’s like three o’clock in the afternoon, we’re still waiting for him to come back, and we gotta go to the gig pretty soon or we’re gonna be late, you know, and I’m going, ‘Shit, I lost my dog. What am I gonna tell everybody?’ You know, I can’t leave him behind, I can’t, you know, what can I do? So I went out hunting for him.
There was a railroad track there, and I walked up and down the railroad track. I was going all by myself up there, from the railroad track, (in a loud, anguished shriek) ‘Elvis!!!!’ And uh, I couldn’t hear a thing, not a hound around, and uh, so I gave up after a while, ’cause this Rolling Stone guy was following me around, taking random notes. You know, I saw him write it down, you know, I was out on this railroad track in the middle of nowhere yelling out Elvis, and uh, so I got, I knew that wouldn’t be good for my image.
“So I went back to the bus, and uh, I got out my lucky shirt, which I don’t have with me tonight, you may have noticed. I know, but it’s too hot for my lucky shirt. So anyway, I, he, I took it out there, and I put it down by the bowl, put his bowl out there, and left the shirt; he’d come back eventually, you know, find his way back to the shirt. And I’d figured after the gig I could come back. So, I get back on the bus to take off. So I’m leaving, and this guy in a pick up truck pulls up and says, ‘Hey Neil, what’re you doing?’ Well, so, I told him, I’m not gonna tell it again here, I told him, and then, uh, then uh, he said ‘Well that’s okay, Neil, I’ll, me and, I’ll go get my wife, and we’ll wait, we’ll wait right here until he comes back, and then we’ll bring him to you in Eureka.’
“I said, ‘Wow, what a great guy, you’re, you’re great.’ Yeah, so he did. You know, so I took off, and uh, just before, uh, I was about half an hour late – nothin’ like Guns n’ Roses or nothin’, but uh. . . but I lost my dog… What did they lose, you know what I mean? So, uh, so I, so I got there. Ah, hey, that’s rock n’ roll, you gotta do what you do. And ah, you know, just as I was going on he called me and said they found him.
Pink Floyd – Seamus
This blues song goes beyond writing a song about a dog. It features a dog singing! This song was on the 1971 album Meddle. The band was moving away from the early psychedelic singles and into longer, more intricate pieces, and this track, though, shows another side built around a simple, short blues pattern.
The song was about and featured Steve Marriott’s dog Seamus, whom Gilmour was dog-sitting for. Gilmour played the harmonica while Seamus was howling away. So that I’m straight on this…seventies rock stars dog sat! I would have never guessed.
I’m playing this loud…Martha is looking around everywhere.
I’ve wanted to revisit Jerry Jeff Walker for a long time. I picked an easy one, but the song has always meant a lot to me. It’s for the personal connection that I picked this one. I first heard this song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but I love this version as well. Only a few songs can make me feel emotional, and this one does. The song gets me emotionally involved with the story, and then comes the line, his dog up and died. I can feel that, and it hurts every time.
The inspiration for the song started in the mid-60s, before Walker was known. He was passing through New Orleans and ended up spending a night in a jail cell on a minor charge. While there, he met an older man who began talking to pass the time. The man said his name was Mr. Bojangles, not his real name, but as something he used to avoid giving his identity to the police.
During the conversation, the man talked about his life as a street dancer. He described performing for tips, moving from place to place, and how he used dance to get by. At one point, the mood shifted. He spoke about his dog that had died, and how that loss affected him. Then, almost as a way to break the tension in the cell, he started tapping and dancing a little. This meeting stayed with Walker.
After getting out, Walker wrote the song based on that encounter. He didn’t try to document the man exactly. Instead, he shaped the story into something broader, a character built from memory. The name itself came from the man’s habit of using it in place of his real one, which also echoed the stage name of dancer Bill Robinson, though the song is not about Robinson. I thought it was when I found out about Robinson.
This song has stood the test of time. I hardly use that worn-out phrase, but it does. Just like some movies are classics, this is because of that story. It’s a great story song, and you get a full look at the characters. It’s some excellent songwriting in that.
Walker was born in New York but drifted around the country in the 60s. In the early 1970s, Walker relocated to Austin, Texas, where he became part of the burgeoning outlaw country music scene. He helped define that genre. He was part of the Texas songwriters such as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. He is not technically a natural-born Texas singer-songwriter, but he is remembered by many as one.
Walker recorded the first version of the song, and it peaked at #77 on the Billboard 100 in 1968. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded their version the next year, releasing it in 1970, and it peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #2 in New Zealand in 1971.
Mr Bojangles
I knew a man Bojangles and he’d dance for you In worn out shoes Silver hair and ragged shirt and baggy pants He did the old soft shoe He jumped so high He jumped so high Then he’d lightly touch down
I met him in a cell in New Orleans I was down and out He looked to me to be the eyes of age As he spoke right out He talked of life He talked of life He laughed slapped his leg a step
He said the name Bojangles and he danced A lick across the cell He grabbed his pants a better stance Then he jumped so high He clicked his heels He let go a laugh oh he let go a laugh Shook back his clothes all around
He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs Throughout the South He spoke with tears of fifteen years how his dog And him traveled about His dog up and died He up and died After twenty years he still grieves
He said I dance now at every chance in honky-tonks For drinks and tips But most o’ the time I spend behind these county bars Hell I drinks a bit He shook his head and as he shook his head I heard someone ask him please
This is not a “great” movie but a very entertaining one.
This 2000 movie has two of my favorite elements, time travel and baseball. It’s NOT about baseball, but the 1969 World Series was used as a talking point and to prove a point. This movie has a cool twist on time travel. No one walks into the future or past, but father and son talk on a ham radio 30 years apart. That World Series is used in a way that convinced the dad that his son was talking to him over a ham radio 30 years in the future.
This movie, overall, is a good vibe movie. Yes, things work out more than they probably should, but it’s just that kind of movie. I love the way they communicate 30 years apart. There are many twists and turns, but it pays off at the end. So if you want a dark, dark movie (it does have dark spots), this one is not for you, but it’s not overly sweet either. The actors did great. Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Elizabeth Mitchell, and others were on target.
It begins in 1999. John Sullivan is a New York City police detective still affected by the death of his father, who died in a warehouse fire in 1969. One night, during a rare solar event, John discovers that his father’s old ham radio is picking up a signal from the past. He soon realizes he is speaking directly to Frank (his father) in 1969. At first, they test the connection with personal details. John tells Frank (his dad) about the 1969 World Series and what happened. Frank doesn’t believe him at first, but soon does, and his life is saved.
Once convinced, John warns Frank about the fire that will kill him the next day. Frank listens, changes his actions, and survives. When the timeline shifts, John wakes up in a new version of 1999 where his father lived longer, but other events have changed. Saving Frank sets off a chain reaction. In the altered timeline, John’s mother is murdered by a serial killer who was active in 1969.
John and Frank, now aware of their link across time, work together to track the killer in both eras. John uses modern police records to guide his father’s investigation into the past, while Frank gathers evidence that affects the future. Their actions create more changes, sometimes helping, sometimes making things worse. The film moves between 1969 and 1999 as both men close in on the suspect. In the final act, events from both timelines converge, leading to a confrontation that resolves the case and restores their family.
Frequency avoids complicated science explanations. The radio connection simply exists, tied to solar activity. The crime plot gives the story tension, but the center remains the conversations between a father and son who were given one more opportunity to speak. Overall, it’s a time-travel feel-good movie…and I’m a sucker for time-travel movies.
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