My Music Journal 2025: August 17, 2025

 

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Time: 6:19 PM
Song: Underground Blues
Artist: Richard Roberts, Jr.
Mode of Consumption: Listening to Midwest Revue while eating supper.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/61O6YQ8xGY296z8TqUdwdC?si=932cbb4d8a8540c3

This week Billy Rose had an artist in studio where he conducted an interview and the artist (Roberts, Jr.) played a few of his songs. 

Roberts, Jr. lives in Quad Cities. I believe he said he arrived to the area sometime in the 1980s, deciding to stick around throughout the years. 

Rose and Roberts talked about the changing music landscape in the area. 

Rose: I started this show (I think he said in the 1990s) because he watched this show and that show, and the bands were always from L.A. or New York, at least that’s what they claimed, but he knew better in many cases. 

Roberts talked about some different events and play-a-longs that have revived the music scene in the QCA.

Rose was enthusiastic and shared that when he was getting out of high school there were forty or fifty bars in Clinton alone, and all of them would regularly feature live music. Now there was two maybe three. 

I wondered if the scene was ever that big in a town like Clinton. Granted, Clinton used to be a hub of sorts with a large factory base and the benefit of being located on the Mississippi River. Sometime in the late 1980s and early 1990s that changed, and Clinton has only recently seemed to be getting back on its feet. 

The show lasted an hour and we heard it all while we prepared our meal, did dishes, prepared our lunches for work tomorrow and did other menial chores. It was a nice glimpse of a working musician in the region.

My Music Journal 2025: August 16, 2025

 

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Time: 7:17 PM
Song: Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat
Artist: Herman’s Hermits
Mode of Consumption: Listening to Herman’s Hermits “On Tour” album on vinyl.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6lWCT9kctZxKMERn6MzaGC?si=3e7eaae5e089430a

Jodi’s uncle Tim bought some records at an auction today, and we picked them up during a birthday party for Tim’s brother Roger this evening. 

There were about twenty albums tucked into a nifty case, the outside of which was a faux brown leather. Once cleaned up, the case might have been the best find of the bunch. This album from Herman’s Hermits was inside along with an Everly Brothers, Dave Clark Five, and a couple from the Partridge Family records. The vinyl condition seemed OK, but the covers were all a bit rough, so none will make top dollar. The rest belonged to my dollar bin. 

The case, though, I think has some potential. I am thinking of putting $10 on it at an upcoming sale over Labor Day weekend. 

If it doesn’t go then, I was thinking about putting together a vinyl collector’s starter’s kit and posting on Facebook for maybe $50 or $75.

The kit would include the case and maybe ten albums. 

My mind is working on which albums from my “For Sale” pile to include in such a kit. 

Maybe something from Johnny Cash. Maybe Elvis. I have a Beatles album in the sale bin, but I suspect that won’t make it through the sale.

I was thinking a good Christmas album should be included. Some sort of compilation album and perhaps a soundtrack. I have a ton of soundtracks in stock right now, including three copies of “Grease.” That would be good. 

What else? Hmmm. 

I think an Herb Alpert record is a nice one to have in the collection. Also, a live album, I do have Beach Boys live album. 

It is fun thinking about what would be a good fit. What would be good tent poles for someone looking to start a collection, but starting small. 

My Music Journal 2025: August 15, 2025

 

Friday, August 15, 2025

Time: 10:02 PM
Song: Let It Go
Artist: Idina Menzel
Mode of Consumption: Watching production of Disney’s “Frozen” at Timber Lake Playhouse.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0qcr5FMsEO85NAQjrlDRKo?si=e26ad6608fb24deb

They came dressed in gowns mimicking their princess of choice. They came dressed as Olaf, the talking snowman. They bandied about the grounds before the show, and they waved wands hoping to cast the right spell for the show to begin. They ranged in age from toddler to young adult. 

What did it prove? 

I guess it proved to me that “Frozen” is this generations Disney tent pole. The show that even if you didn’t want to watch it, you likely did a dozen times at the behest of friends or teachers or family members. Yes, if you were a youth in the 2010s and since, you likely can recite the tale of Elsa and Anna chapter and verse. 

It’s filled that role that “Lion King” did for those in the 1990s and before that there was “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin.” 

And with it, “Let It Go” is that staple song that brings them to their feet. The signature song for this tale that I think is hinting at female empowerment and casting away societal pressure to suppress gifts and talents to fill a “woman’s” role. 

That all said, I came of age in the 1990s and didn’t have kids when this movie came out. So, I had seen the movie once, on a bus trip probably a decade ago. I had a general idea of the story, but couldn’t remember much else, other than the song. No one could escape that totally when “Frozen” hit it big in 2013. 

I think what stands out to me, at least from the production at Timber Lake, is that it is one of the few times that a villainous turn isn’t telegraphed by the villain delivering a monologue or song telling you he is the villain. 

Instead, Hans simply makes the classic pro wrestling ‘heel’ turn with little forewarning near the end of the third act. Yep, he was playing Anna, the kingdom’s people and the audience the entire time. 

He wasn’t in it for love. He was grabbing power. 

I suppose it’s a step forward in Disney storytelling. Although, one of my favorite parts in the “Lion King” is Scar singing out his plans to the hyenas before killing Mufasa and sending Simba into exile. 

My Music Journal 2025: August 14, 2025

 

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Time: 7:04 PM
Song: I Can’t Have You
Artist: The Gulls
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle after eating at Basil Tree in Dixon.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/07aqD6zYskpBMTZNf0SJpK?si=679fbd9e7d27431d

It’s not often that we go out to eat during the week, but we did tonight for Jodi’s birthday, which is actually Friday.

Basil Tree is an Italian Ristorante in downtown Dixon, and it’s the usual pick for her birthday meal. We each had a tomato soup appetizer followed by pasta and then split a piece of tuxedo cake.

Near the end of the meal we talked about our niece leaving for college soon, relatively far from home.

Jodi had gone to a nearby community college the first two years after high school, and I went an hour away to Northern. She transferred to Northern her junior year.

So, we were never very far away.

“Could you have gone far away at that age?” she asked.

I thought about it.

“I think so.” Both my siblings had gone to school three hours away in Champaign. My older brother moved to Atlanta after graduating college. The idea of moving away wasn’t a foreign concept in my world.

Jodi’s brother had moved to Rockford after high school but was home often. So, her experience was a bit different.

The truth is that if I had a direction in life at that point, I might have moved away or pursued a school farther away. I wish I had more confidence in myself and my writing abilities at that age. It perhaps would have led to different professional opportunities. Jodi made a similar comment after having a career goal.

Later, Jodi said: “Oh well, we’re pretty happy with how things turned out.”

I agreed.

My Music Journal 2025: August 13, 2025

 

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Time: 6:08 A.M.
Song: Lyin’ Eyes
Artist: Eagles
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle while working out in the basement.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5lQKRR3MdJLtAwNBiT8Cq0?si=3c818ed0dac147ec

The lyric played while I was doing jumping jacks.

“A rich old man and she won’t have to worry.”

A few moments later, Jodi’s voice calls out down the basement steps.

“You know, if I find a rich old man, you’d be the one I’d be cheating with.”

She was joking, of course, but after having a few days off last week, I think we are both thinking of ways that we could move out of the workforce.

“I’d share the money with you,” she continued. “At least we wouldn’t have to go to work tomorrow.”

The last part of her statement is from the “Darmine Doggy Door” skit video from Tim Robinson’s Netflix show “I think You Should Leave.”

In the video, Robinson plays a man short on sleep who thinks a monster has entered his house through a traditional doggy door. He makes the remark while realizing that he might be eaten that he “won’t have to go to work tomorrow.”

It’s a line we drop a lot now whenever the potential for something bad happens.

My Music Journal 2025: August 12, 2025

 

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Time: 5:04 PM
Song: Losing My Religion
Artist: REM
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.

I have a distinct memory of this song playing at Westwood Sports Complex in Sterling at some point in my youth. My sister, Kim, played her youth softball games at fields located to the east of the main Westwood Complex.

Doing a bit of Googling, I see that the song was released in February of 1991. So, it’s possible it was the summer of 1991. I would have been 9 years old.

I don’t remember anything else.

Just that I was there, and I am pretty sure watching my sister play softball, and “Losing My Religion” was playing

I don’t know where the music was playing from. I don’t remember there being speakers at any of the softball fields. Youth sports were played too much less fanfare back then; I imagine that went double for girls’ sports.

I suspect someone had their car radio blaring.

Or maybe the game was over, and we were sitting in our car for some reason with the radio playing.

I don’t even know why I have this memory, or why it pretty much comes to my mind anytime I hear the song, or I happen to be at Westwood.

I do know that I never quite understood what the phrase “losing my religion” meant, but I always assumed it was something sordid, and as a youth, likely something sexual that I didn’t comprehend.

What I can say, is that the song is catchy, and it’s a good one to sing along to on the way home from work and wonder about some random evening when I was nine.

My Music Journal 2025: August 11, 2025

 

Monday, August 11, 2025

Time: 5:15 PM
Song: I’ll Take You There
Artist: The Staple Sisters
Mode of Consumption: Playing at the dentist’s office

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5YLnfy7R2kueN0BRPkjiEG?si=01337d8d289e442a

The opening lines of this play:

“Oh, mmmm, I know a place

Ain’t nobody cryin’…” 

And I think, I don’t think I am at that place. A few minutes later, that’s confirmed as I can hear the dentist comforting a young girl through some sort of procedure and the girl’s cries could be heard throughout the office. 

I’ll also realized that even though I have probably heard this song hundreds of times, I’ve never thought about who recorded it. With nothing else to do while the hygienist scraped plaque from my teeth, I figured it out. 

That’s Mavis Staples. 

Has to be. While I am far from a Mavis Staples expert, her vocals are unique. So, there, I learned something at the dentist’s office. 

After the cleaning, the dentist arrived, and she commented on a Supremes song playing. The hygienist, who I think is older than the dentist, crinkles her nose. Apparently, she doesn’t like oldies. 

From there, I get a breakdown of a recent change to the music played at the office. They rely on broadcast radio, and recently the station they traditionally listened to changed format from Top 40 to hard rock. It just didn’t work for their clientele. 

They tried a couple other stations. 

“One was Top 40,” the dentist said. “Really it was Top 4. That’s all they seemed to play. We called in ‘Pink Pony Radio.’” 

“I kind of miss Pink Pony Radio,” the hygienist said.