Two Oldies, But Goodies, From Gilbert O’Sullivan

Gilbert O’Sullivan (photo swiped from Google search)

I just LOVE these two songs!

Get Down

CLAIR

Both songs remind me of very good things in my life.

Get Down, about a dog, is so about my needy cat Derick — oh how I love him so! So bad, but such a sweetie.

“Get Down” is one of those songs you have to play at least THREE times in a row!

And “Clair,” I used to baby sit a little girl named Claire, who made such a big impact on my life. She was an old soul in a little girl’s body, so wise beyond her years. I had so much fun with her until her family moved away.

A few years later, Dennis and I went to visit her. She was 13 at the time. Growing up and such a pretty little lady. Now Claire is in college. I dropped her an email about a year ago and told her how much she inspired me. (One of her favorite games was pretending we were old ladies complaining about the price of real estate!)

For a short or long time, you just never know who will touch your life! (And what songs will remind you of them!)

Note: on one of the You Tube songs, someone wrote that Gilbert O’Sullivan reminds them of Paul McCartney. I have to agree!

Happy Birthday Punky Meadows!

Punky Meadows

Happy Birthday to the legendary, Punky Meadows, lead guitarist of 1970s hard rock/glam band, Angel. Their record label was Casablanca, same as KISS. But unfortunately unlike KISS they never got the recognition they deserved.

Angel was (and still is) one of my favorite bands. I was too young to go see them live, but I had all the albums. My sister loved them too. My great-grandmother even loved them. They were amazing!

With so many thrilling Angel songs to choose from, here are just a few of my favorites:

And just for fun, here’s a Frank Zappa tribute to Punky Meadows, with Terry Bozzio on lead vocals singing, Punky’s Whips

:

IGGY POP — KILL CITY

I’m such a fan of all Iggy Pop’s solo work and this album has always been my favorite of everything Iggy’s ever done. I had this on green vinyl.

Here it is, KILL CITY, in it’s entirety (because that’s how it SHOULD be listened to — in order!)

And here is a track from the album, “I Got Nothing” covered by D-Generation, who did an amazing job!

 

 

1976: Got My KISS Record Out!

The Album That Changed My Life — for about a few hours

Kiss was very significant in my life.

They were the first “cool” band I listened to. Destroyer was my first “real” album. Before that it was Sonny & Cher, Bay City Rollers, AM Gold hits on the radio and my mom and uncle’s Elvis, Tom Jones and Johnny Cash records. Mind you, all this stuff is considered cool today, but it wasn’t back in 1976, age 12.

Around this time, I beat up the school bully.

My grandmother always taught me, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose a fight, just get one good punch in, show them you’re not scared.

So, here I was 12-years-old, and the school hero for beating up a bully. All of a sudden I was mad popular, after being the shy skinny pimple kid with glasses that no one would talk to because they gave up on me because I was too shy to talk to them. Fair is fair and it never bothered me much that I didn’t have friends. I was a loner.

But now that I had friends, I decided to throw a party in my grandmother’s basement and invite all my new friends.

I was suddenly too cool for my own classmates – the 7th graders. Instead, I invited all the 8th graders.

But the 7th graders were begging me to invite them too, so I invited the ones who begged the hardest.

That night, the kids all started pouring in. Twelve- and 13-year-olds brought beer and other alcoholic beverages.

A lot of the boys were still short and it was hilarious seeing mismatched short, skinny boys with girls who were overdeveloped for their age.

I only had my one Kiss album, “Destroyer,” and that’s all we listened to all night, over and over.

Pre-teen and teen-aged kids got drunk, cried and made out like crazy.

I only had a few sips of beer … to fit in. (I didn’t get drunk. I didn’t cry. Nor did I “make out like crazy.”)

Nobody fought or wrecked anything. I considered the party a success.

When “Beth” played, the cutest boy in the school sang to me, replacing my name, “Maryanne” every time Peter Criss sang, “Beth.”

“Maryanne, what can I do?”

It was the first time a boy ever sang to me. But when it came time to kiss him, I was afraid. So I lost out.

Monday morning all the kids said to me, “Great party!”

Sadly, my mother found out about the beer. I got in trouble, and felt resentful of my new friends.

I started drifting away from them and slumped back into my loner stage.

But I continued to buy Kiss records. And also moved on to Queen and Aerosmith.