Day #12 - 30 Day Music Meme -A song from Preteen Years

[shadowkat]

Day #12 of the 30 Day Music Meme- a song from your preteen years. I'm not sure if this is meant to be a song that I listened to a lot, or had been recorded back then. I listened to a lot of music back then, everything from Helen Reddy to ABBA to the Carpenters, to well...The Monkeeys. Also there were Disney Movie Soundtrack Records, Musical Recordings, and all of my parents, Folk, Jazz, Classical records.

But at that time, I remember being in love with The Monkeeys, who my Dad liked to call a poor man's Beatles. And my favorite was...Davy Jones. My best friend and I, at the time, were in love with him. And made a point of seeing his appearance on the Brady Bunch, where he sung our favorite song..

Here he is singing it on the television episode of the Monkeeys in which it premiered.

Watch on YouTube

The song was written by John Stewart for The Monkeeys. It premiered the year I was born in 1967. (So I'm going to have to find something else for that song category - aren't I? ) But I heard it on The Monkeeys, when it aired on Saturday morning in reruns, and sang it with my friends in 1974.

So it was from my preteen years, one way or another. Also it kind of shows, my memory of songs is very visual. I remember the song, because I saw it on a television show and had a crush on the singer.

Comments

[atpo_onm]

Had to check on the release dates for a few of my initial picks, which turned out to be a good idea because they were all later than 1966, the year I turned 13. Then it came to me-- a band I was very fond of from the first time I heard them, and I remember getting my folks to buy the album for me.

This was the big hit from it, in 1962. This youtube version (there are many) has reasonably decent audio quality, and a few interesting images:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=414VaKKb9Hc

This one has some live versions, with the picture quality a reminder of how far we've come in 50+ years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kmsb0rXZrc

I still feel sorry for the bull, but it is a great tune, as were many Alpert and his band did.

ETA -- I had picked this tune before reading cjl's pick, which only shows that great minds... often like similar music ;-)

[shadowkat]

I think I've heard it before, also it sounds very similar to cjl's pick.

I also am beginning to think you're both instrumental enthusiasts, you appear to prefer the instrumental or orchestration to lyrics in music, or are more interested in the sound. Most of your picks are ones in which lyrics don't matter or don't exist.

Interesting, it does however explain a lot.

I can't remember many instrumentations unless they are movie, musical, dance or television scores. Hmmm. For me, most instrumentation is kind of like white noise? I used to use it to go to sleep. I still do on occasion. Yours and cjl's picks are examples of what I use to relax or go to sleep or even focus. What I'd play in the background.

Ah my father owned Herb Alpert albums (that's why it is familiar - he may still, I don't know), he loves classical music and big band and brass and Gregorian Chant. He actually preferred instrumental music to music with lyrics. When we saw the Mission - we got the score immediately, along with the score to Chariots of Fire. And he had a collection of the Big Band Sound of the 1950s and 40s when he was a kid, that his brothers would borrow. Also adored opera. My father loves the sound. And he loved Sinatra - because of how Sinatra sang it.

[atpo_onm]

I also am beginning to think you're both instrumental enthusiasts, you appear to prefer the instrumental or orchestration to lyrics in music, or are more interested in the sound.

There may be some degree of truth to that observation, although if you saw my music collection, you would not lack for vocal material being well represented. I enjoy lyrics, and the vocalist who sing them well, but I don't miss them if they aren't there. I spend much of my day listening to WRTI-FM, the Temple University (Philadelphia) classical and jazz NPR station, and the rest of the time with WXPN-FM, the U-Penn NPR adult album alternative station (what we called "progressive" radio in olden days).

If you like ambient music, you might wish to check out this site:

https://echoes.org/

Besides a list of broadcast stations carrying this very long-running program, they also have podcasts now, so that another venue.

If you have an interest in what was most commonly referred to as "space music", this is the show I usually fall asleep to after 1 AM Sunday.

http://www.starsend.org/

Anyway, as to lyrics, I prefer those that are more story-telling, as it were. While Dylan is an obvious example, I greatly prefer Paul Simon to Dylan, or a number of folk / country artists, or my all-time favorite female vocalist, Sandy Denny, who wrote some truly wonderful songs, with excellent lyrics to go with her instrumental chops.

An interesting quirk I know I have is that if the instrumental efforts are working for me, I tend to be more forgiving of so-so or merely interesting lyrical work. That does tend to support your conjecture above, I have to say.

Here's an example that quickly comes to mind. This is actually one of the few bands native to Lancaster that ever got to be known at least a little bit outside of the local area, with two albums being released nationally before the bandmembers finally went their separate ways.

The woman who plays that astonishing piano work in this and other tunes-- yes, it's a piano-driven band, not a guitar one! -- freely admits that their lyrics "tend to go around a bit". Yes, they do, but I totally love this group, and I don't care about the lyrics. They are very clever and talented in their own, very unique way, and that's what grabs me.

Suddenly Tammy - Hard Lesson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3_4ipEvE_I

Gotta say I'm really liking this music meme! :-)