Dave Schwensen's Blog, page 6
March 1, 2019
#161 – Sultans of Swing
#161 – Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits
[image error] – For some, moving to New York City can be like relocating to Ork. Now, if you get that reference you’ll want to continue reading. If not, go for it anyway and you’ll understand…
I was looking through photos of Manhattan taken in the late 1970’s. There was the famous skyline with The Empire State Building and Twin Towers of The World Trade Center, along with the various neighborhood highlights of theaters, diners, restaurants, stores and parks. It was...
February 22, 2019
#162 – The Mighty Hercules Theme Song
#162 – The Mighty Hercules Theme Song by Johnny Nash
[image error] – Surprised? Yeah, I was too. I had no idea the singer, producer and songwriter of the 1972 Reggae hit, I Can See Clearly Now, was the same voice leading us into each episode of this 1963-1966 cartoon series. It’s amazing what can be learned through a quick online search for something – really, anything – about an obscure and mostly forgotten television cartoon theme song.
Okay, maybe not completely forgotten if you’re old enough to have w...
February 13, 2019
#163 – It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
#163 – It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me by Billy Joel
[image error] – When this song came out in 1980 boomers were still controlling the music scene, but something strange was starting to happen. Our rebellious nature had been focused on the older generation, but now we were feeling the push of a generation coming up behind us. They were tagged as Generation X and many of us considered them too young to be of any real notice as we continued to groove through our late twenties. It was noticeable when the pun...
January 16, 2019
#164 – Soul Finger
#164 – Soul Finger by The Bar-Kays
[image error] – This song has me running in my mind. Notice the wording of that sentence. It’s not running through my mind, though it is at this moment. But I’m talking about running, like on a track team, which is something I haven’t done since Soul Finger was running on a regular basis on AM radio when it was released in the spring of 1967.
Thinking back to our favorite Top 40 stations in the 1960’s, instrumentals didn’t get a lot of respect from the deejays. Yeah, som...
January 5, 2019
#165 – I Want You Back
#165 – I Want You Back by The Jackson Five
[image error] – There was a popular television show when I was a kid called, I’ve Got A Secret. The song I Want You Back by a preteen Michael Jackson and his brothers has really nothing do with that, except for bringing back how I felt – sort of – when I first heard it in 1969.
The show was hosted by popular television personality, Gary Moore – not to be confused with the guitar playing Gary Moore decades later. A supposedly unknown person would be introduced, ch...
December 27, 2018
#166 – C’mon Marianne
#166 – C’mon Marianne by The Four Seasons
[image error] – You don’t need to have age revealing personal memories of placing a vinyl 45 rpm on your portable Hi-Fi record player to know The Four Seasons were HUGE during the era when the times really were a’changing. Okay, that’s a round ’bout Bob Dylan-isk (I just added that ending syllable to make up that hyphenated word) way of saying they were having hits before, during and after The British Invasion. That’s was a HUGE accomplishment for a U.S. pop group...
December 20, 2018
Top 3 Classic Rocker Christmas Songs
Top 3 Classic Rocker Christmas Songs
[image error] – Once my head hit the pillow Thanksgiving night, I never dreamed there was a chance I wouldn’t wake up from my turkey hangover this year. But the overindulgence of tryptophan had me stirring the next morning to what I assumed were angels singing in the background. It was a festive sound, but then I realized there were no harps or even Victoria’s Secret models with wings. And since I long ago passed the requirement for Billy Joel’s “Only the good die youn...
December 13, 2018
#167 – Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
#167 – Would You Like To Swing On A Star? by Bing Crosby – but I learned it from a cartoon!
[image error]Not the cartoon!
– There’s a good chance this version of The Classic Rocker will come off sounding like it was written by a five or six year old kid. There’s a good reason – since that’s the age this golden oldie imbedded itself into my memory bank and has stayed buried in there ever since.
Would You Like To Swing On A Star? (officially titled Swinging On A Star) has nothing to do with Classic Rock. I’...
November 27, 2018
#168 – I Want To Take You Higher
#168 – I Want To Take You Higher by Sly & The Family Stone
[image error] – At the risk of sounding like I’m standing alone in the middle of a large field with no one else to support my opinion, I believe every teenage guy that played an electric guitar in 1970 learned the opening riff to this song. Okay, maybe that’s too much of a general assumption, but I’m basing it on personal experience.
I fit that demographic and pretty sure I wasn’t alone.
Sly & The Family Stone were definitely not alone in a field...
November 10, 2018
#169 – 25 or 6 to 4
#169 – 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago
[image error] – Sometimes there’s nothing like a solid horn section to punch up a great rock ‘n’ roll song. For me that feeling goes back to the early days of Little Richard (though I was too young to actually experience it at the time) when a dirty-sounding saxophone raged over his pounding piano. And even today since a young Little Richard is never too old for the digital age of listening, the volume is worthy of being turned up whenever The Upsetters – his backing horn se...