I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine, any time night or day. Only trouble is, gee whiz, I’m dreamin’ my life away.

Sappy Song Department

“All I Have to Do is Dream” by The Everly Brothers (1958)

There is always a lot of discussion of the R&B contribution to music, but the Everlys brought their contribution from another angle – they may really have been the most successful country or maybe even hillbilly band to make their mark on rock. Like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and not to forget Elvis, they had a country music that morphed into rockabilly and then quickly leapt into rock and Roll.  The difference was that they were an inseparable duo from childhood – and made a contribution only a duo could make.

All my friends know the low rider. The low rider is a little higher. Low rider drives a little slower

Quick Hit

“Low Rider” by War (1975)  

I once was in Orange County and saw this car with several Chicano gentlemen looking very serious pull up at the intersection. The car bobbed up and down on its hydraulic lifters and I just could not help myself and I laughed. I was not laughing at them per se, but just struck by how so unlikely it was to see something so stereotypically real down to the headbands and glimmering hubcaps. They could have shot me or something if they wanted to I’m sure so I pretty quickly took the grin off my face.

I was in a summer vacation town recently and was watching the cars go up and down the strip. Every town has a strip and every town had the boys that drive up and down them. The prosperity of the towns vary, so therefore so do the quality and quantity of the cars. The one thing that seems to be constant however is the attitude. The look that they have in their eyes is always the same – the incarnation of James Dean or Elvis or something - don’t you know it is never cool to smile!

One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small And the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all

Songs Everybody Should Know

“White Rabbit” by the Jefferson Airplane (1967)  

From the ‘Summer of Love”, with its classic psychedelic-era chords, a tinge of Spanish ‘bolero’ and the anti-establishment marching beat, “White Rabbit” is tie-dyed on my brain.  Banned as a ‘drug’ song, my older sister (quite young at the time) told me it was about drugs. She told me there were ‘pushers’ that made you ‘hooked’ on drugs.  I said “I thought Alice was in Wonderland”. She said, “Listen to the song! She takes drugs if you call that Wonderland!” (Much to my sister’s delight this song was used as the theme song in the 1973 movie “Go Ask Alice”).