Within You Without You

And to see you're really only very small and
Life flows on within you and without you.

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1967
Rating: Warm

Untouchable Face

I presume that Ms. DiFranco came to mind because I was discussing her music with Scott the other day. This particular song seems suited to some mental tangents of late as well. The song is not analogous to what has happened between me and my recent ex-girlfriend, but certainly I've had some of that "Fuck you, and your untouchable face" feeling lately.

Also, I was at a post-Thanksgiving feast with a bunch of poly friends last night, and finding the company worthy of stirring several mild but burgeoning crushes. This song exemplifies the conflict in monogamy, in which someone is "taken" and therefore, "untouchable." This is not the case in my scene of choice. However, the combined factors of 1. a close-knit circle of friends wanting to maintain good boundaries with each other and 2. most folks in the circle seeming to have fairly full dance cards right now, leads me to assume that any number of those faces may very well continue to be untouchable. For now.

Artist: Ani DiFranco
Year: 1996
Rating: Luke Hot

Note: The main guitar line leads me right into The Who's Baba O'Riley. Funnily enough this is the second entry in which a song has strongly mingled in my mind with Baba O. The last time this happened was with REM's Supernatural Superserious. I guess this happens when your band is palpably influential over the course of decades.

Yesterday Once More (Once More)

The third time I've woken with this song since starting the blog. Here's a better video for it this time. I think this was prompted because I was singing this tune with my family on Thanksgiving. It came up in the context of songs we remembered singing a lot as kids.



Last in my head on January 13, 2011.

Artist: The Carpenters
Year: 1973
Rating: Luke Hot

Wild Sage

And when somebody asks if I'm okay
I don't know what to say
And along the highway
From cast-off innumerable seeds
Wild sage growing in the weeds.

One of my very favorite songs. Makes me cry almost every time I hear it. It names a lifelong conundrum of mine: am I okay, or am I not okay? Usually, the answer is both, simultaneously, just like wild sage growing in the weeds. But how should I answer the question today?

Artist: The Mountain Goats
Year: 2006
Rating: Hot!

Sympathy for the Devil

What an eery, contageous, epic song, though I don't have a good reason for it to be in my head today. This being the eighth Stones song I've blogged about (in addition to mentions in other entries), they are a well-represented band in my head. It's probably the fact of their ubiquity alone that brought the song to mind. Or maybe it's all the political turmoil of late? (Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints)...but that would probably be a touch of revisionist history.

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Year: 1968
Rating: Luke Hot

Note: Anytime this song is played, it should be announced by a proper Englishman wearing a tie.

Give Me The Night

This song must've been conjured by pure wish-fulfillment fantasy.

Cause there's music in the air
And lots of lovin' everywhere...

Artist: George Benson
Year: 1980
Rating: Warm

There Is A Mountain

Fun performance, though he's having a tough time rallying the crowd on the chorus. I have no idea why I was triggered to remember this song this morning. I can appreciate the spiritual simplicity better now than when I first heard it as a wily teen and had to mock it. It was still amusing to wake to, though.

Artist: Donovan
Year: 1967
Rating: Warm

Three's Company Theme

Three's Company
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I think this song is in my head due to my unconventional living arrangements of late. I live in a two bedroom apartment with my very recent ex-girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend. Hilarity ensues. And, y'know, awkwardness.

Artist: Joe Raposo (Composer), Ray Charles (not *that* Ray Charles) & Julia Rinker
Year: 1977
Rating: Luke Hot

Fly By Night

My ship isn't coming, and I just can't pretend.

Unlike my last entry about a Rush song, this one has emerged spontaneously from my unconscious. ("Limelight" back in 2010 was a carbon copy mental image generated from listening to classic rock radio.) So, there Rush is, a bona fide presence in my neural pathways, one might say "crackling with life" in the "invisible airways" of my brain. Ahh, sweet prog geekery.

Artist: Rush
Year: 1975
Rating: Warm