Music of the Day, 7 June 2024

i know it's mine

Despite the atypical heat yesterday,¹ I’m feeling okay. Well, more than okay: for the first time in many years, I’ve not yet observed any signs of my usual summertime blues. I’m not entirely sure why, because this has been a pattern since long before we moved to New Mexico; but I think I grok part of it.

Last July, I launched this project in part to combat my summer doldrums, without mentioning that motive. I did explain it several months later and was pleased to see that others feel the same way I do about the dark of winter. Creating MotD helped shift my focus from negative internal self-talk to attending more carefully to the radio station in my mind, and sharing here some of what it serves up.

Creating a community of readers was more a hope than a goal. I mean, what could be more egotistical than remembering certain songs, remembering personal experiences related to them, and thinking others would want to read about all that? But

Sweaty Spice

not only read, he commented and encouraged me to keep writing. Then

Al Bellenchia

started commenting, and I found his ‘Stack focused on his work supporting his physical community. They really got me out of my head and helped me find my way back to the land of the living and doing. Others found their way to MotD and found it interesting—and even better, they too began participating. It has been deeply gratifying to read others’ thoughts and takes on the music featured here.

As a result, I’m entering this summer with a couple of deeper old friendships, and a few exciting new ones. Thinking about that this morning (and doing the usual American thing of labeling almost everyone who comments here a friend) led to a rare appearance on the radio station in my mind.

I may have physically owned Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at one time. An aunt gave me the Magical Mystery Tour album, perhaps for Christmas 1967, and I’ve probably been conflating the two ever since, so my memories on the point are fuzzy.

My mom’s siblings were my introduction to rock music, and I know I’ve heard “With a Little Help From My Friends” a lot over the years. But it took until today for me to realize that it’s Ringo taking a rare turn² as lead singer on “With a Little Help From My Friends.” It was obviously not any of the others in the band, so I don’t know why I didn’t make that connection before now. Even though the video I chose is the original mono version, I’m hearing McCartney’s cool bass line clearly for probably the first time ever. Very nice!

These days, my library contains several Beatles albums courtesy of a piratical friend or three many years ago. From all accounts of my musical preferences, at least a few of them should be in regular rotation … but I don’t think I’ve ever played any of them. And I’ve never considered the Beatles one of my favorite bands, even though young Jackie adored the aforementioned albums, along with Yellow Submarine. The only explanation I have for it is how much the Beatles dominated music even for years after their breakup. I heard so many of their songs so much that they became almost background music.

I could lie now and say that I’ll be listening to MMT or summat else from the Beatles today, but neither are going to happen. I think my candor is part of what makes MotD a worthwhile place to visit, and I’m not going to start pretending now. The rest of my day is pretty full of other activities … several of which are thanks to the help I’ve gotten from my friends.

1. according to a local weather station, we got up to 102° F (39° C), but the official station in ABQ fell well short of that

2. as far as I know