Music and more with claudecat17 (aka Chris Davlin)!

Here’s a bonus tune for y’all. I first heard this when I asked dad for Monkees records the 12th time. He ran the college radio station, which needed those Monkees records badly for student airplay, so no matter how annoyingly I whined it made no difference. But dad did something cool. He handed me the Lovin’ Spoonful “Everything Playing” LP, fresh from the Big N as memory serves. If he was gonna buy a record why wasn’t it a motherfuckin’ Monkees record?!? I had mixed feelings about the whole deal. On the one hand I knew a few of their tunes already from the AM radio everyone still listened to. WBBF was the big Top 40 station, the big popular one. WAXC was the one that was cooler, with fewer ads and less moronic DJs. On the other hand I’d been begging for Monkees albums for months! What the fuck pops?!?

My curiosity won out. I loved the cover first of all. It was weird, and a little Beatle-y, always a plus. And when I finally got around to playing it – on the big stereo that we’d been allowed to use since we were toddlers – I realized I liked a few of the tunes a whole lot, better than any Monkees song! Dad had been right! Cool dad would eventually turn into Rush Limbaugh fan dad, then demented dad. It was pretty rough. I mean the Limbaugh part more than the dementia. Seriously. How does a guy that was at Woodstock, marched on Washington, helped draft dodgers hide, and did a shitload of drugs of all kinds turn into a guy whose shelves are packed with Pat Buchanan books and other such drivel. He was ahead of his time in succumbing to the wiles of the billionaires and their media tools! Just like he was ahead of his time in pioneering free form FM radio, what eventually evolved into the classic rock format. Just a gut punch from the universe man… I’m through thinking about it again. One day I’ll write a book…

Sorry for all that. This album always triggers dad stuff, but the 4-5 great tunes make up for that nicely. Early dad was great! I try to only remember that guy…

Of all those 4-5 favorite tunes the one I always loved best is this one, “Six O’Clock”. It’s got everything I love, one of them being John Sebastian’s singing. It’s got that great clavinet riff at the beginning too, and is a well written, kinda sneaky great song even if a few lyrics haven’t aged well. I’m also quite fond of “Boredom”, which has great lyrics evoking small town loneliness and a disdain for machines. It’s a fish out of water story, with lyrics to prove it: “…feel about as local as a fish in a tree…”.

Seems to me this one could have been a hit with proper marketing. They were on one of the more mobbed up labels though, so if they ever made any money at all they were ahead of the game. Read about Tommy James some time… But is Bruno Mars any different today? So in debt that he has to play Vegas basically forever or until he hits it big. Sad…

I’ll shut the fuck up now! Enjoy the tune. If anyone has thoughts on the band or tune the comment section is totally free of charge, though tipping is encouraged. Cows. We expect cows. I’m told they enjoy being tipped. Not looking forward to finding out, but —– Right. Shutting the fuck up now!