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First, if not Foremost
Feb. 10th, 2007 07:36 pmToday wound up being one of those busy-as-a-weekday weekend days. Cranked out still more of the midweek backlog, returned to various banks for today's thrilling episode of We Can't Tell You When Your Client's Check Will Be Good (until and unless it is, and it was! Yay!), endured the ValenLine at the Post Office for the third day running, and got my car washed for the third time this salt season.
It's hardly a matter of vanity, so much as necessity; the highway departments around here use so much of the damn stuff, in bright sunlight you really can't see out your side windows from the salt piled up to the roof. The local car wash mavens run a special where you get a second free wash if claimed within five days of the first, and various charities sell these "Super Kisses" as fundraisers, so I've been watching my travel calendar and hoping the re-salting between now and Thursday will be it for awhile when I return for the rewash that afternoon.
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And this has to do with music, what?
Just that while getting my gas (three cents off with the wash, w00t!) before going through the Delta Sonic Tunnel of Love™, the radio in the pump area and at the register had one of the oldest songs I can remember hearing: Lesley Gore's "California Nights." I definitely associate this song with some guest TV appearance she did sometime in my extreme formative years- maybe a Batman episode? Yes, this one from 1967 would be the right time, and IMDB says she sang it- but if it was that late, I clearly had quite a bit of discography under my belt by then. My sisters had introduced me to the Beatles, Joan Baez, and Simon & Garfunkel well before that time, and I was already listening to the local hit music stations which brought much of the 60s- admittedly, little of the enduring part, more of the three-minute bubble-gum and girl-group variety- into my consciousness.
It did connect me to this question, though: what was the first song I did have a recollection of hearing?
Somewhat amazingly, I can answer that question precisely: title, artist, year and even the station (WMCA, back when it, rather than WABC, was the big breakthrough voice of rock and roll in New York). The year would have been 1966, and the song would have been, and still is, this one by a Pittsburgh native named Lou Christie:
Lightning Strikes
You may not have heard of Lou, but such legendary follow-on artists as Elton John, John Lennon and Madonna all acknowledged debts of gratitude to him. I doubt I've heard this song in more than a decade, but I enjoyed the stream of consciousness that got its mp3 onto my disk and, now, onto this page.
----
So what's yours?
Give it some thought. There must be one Music Alpha song you can remember from earlier back than any other. Comment about it. Send it if ya got it. Share the memory, while there's still memory to share (you'll understand when you're older).
It's hardly a matter of vanity, so much as necessity; the highway departments around here use so much of the damn stuff, in bright sunlight you really can't see out your side windows from the salt piled up to the roof. The local car wash mavens run a special where you get a second free wash if claimed within five days of the first, and various charities sell these "Super Kisses" as fundraisers, so I've been watching my travel calendar and hoping the re-salting between now and Thursday will be it for awhile when I return for the rewash that afternoon.
----
And this has to do with music, what?
Just that while getting my gas (three cents off with the wash, w00t!) before going through the Delta Sonic Tunnel of Love™, the radio in the pump area and at the register had one of the oldest songs I can remember hearing: Lesley Gore's "California Nights." I definitely associate this song with some guest TV appearance she did sometime in my extreme formative years- maybe a Batman episode? Yes, this one from 1967 would be the right time, and IMDB says she sang it- but if it was that late, I clearly had quite a bit of discography under my belt by then. My sisters had introduced me to the Beatles, Joan Baez, and Simon & Garfunkel well before that time, and I was already listening to the local hit music stations which brought much of the 60s- admittedly, little of the enduring part, more of the three-minute bubble-gum and girl-group variety- into my consciousness.
It did connect me to this question, though: what was the first song I did have a recollection of hearing?
Somewhat amazingly, I can answer that question precisely: title, artist, year and even the station (WMCA, back when it, rather than WABC, was the big breakthrough voice of rock and roll in New York). The year would have been 1966, and the song would have been, and still is, this one by a Pittsburgh native named Lou Christie:
Lightning Strikes
You may not have heard of Lou, but such legendary follow-on artists as Elton John, John Lennon and Madonna all acknowledged debts of gratitude to him. I doubt I've heard this song in more than a decade, but I enjoyed the stream of consciousness that got its mp3 onto my disk and, now, onto this page.
----
So what's yours?
Give it some thought. There must be one Music Alpha song you can remember from earlier back than any other. Comment about it. Send it if ya got it. Share the memory, while there's still memory to share (you'll understand when you're older).