A Song in My Heart (It Should’ve Stayed There): A Little Traveling Music

Now that my daughter is attending UC Santa Cruz, I have decided that my trips up there are going to be my excuse to visit the great old book and record stores they have up there. Actually, do they even call them record stores anymore? Even CDs are passé these days. Passé or not, I’ve decided I should use the opportunity to buy some CDs of my favorite LPs that I haven’t been able to listen to in a good long while.

On my most recent trip earlier this month, I picked up American Pie by Don McLean, Graceland by Paul Simon, and Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s concert album, Nine Tonight. “American Pie” was Don McLean’s biggest hit and, at eight-and-a-half minutes, is one of the longest songs to reach number one. It’s always been one of my favorite songs and I knew all the words by heart by time I was in junior high (or most of them anyway; there was no Internet at the time to give me a definitive ruling on the “Landed foul on the grass” lyric). Understanding the various references to the music of decade or so following the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (which actually has since become known as “The Day the Music Died”)—the King, the Jester, Lenin (or possibly Lennon) reading a book on Marx, Sergeants playing a marching tune, the Byrds eight miles high and their fallout shelter, Jack Flash sitting on a candlestick, and on and on—came bit by bit over the subsequent years.

"The angels guide my every tread/ My enemies are sick or dead/ But all the victories I've led/ Haven't brought you to my bed"

The album also includes “Vincent,” McLean’s other hit. Sometimes known as “Starry, Starry Night,” it was about Vincent van Gogh. I’d always thought it was a pretty song, but now find myself liking it even more since watching the Doctor Who episode, “Vincent and the Doctor.”

I cried too.

The rest of the album is a collection of 70 male vocalist soft rock ditties, some light (“Winterwood”), some dark (“The Grave”); good, but not great. Except for “Everybody Loves Me, Baby (What’s the matter with you?).” Now that song is made of sheer fun and deserves the title of “Greatest Love Song Sung by a Megalomaniac.” (Jonathan Coulton's “Skullcrusher Mountain” deserves recognition in this category too.)

I used to have Graceland on a cassette, which made it handy for the car. On CD, it is once again handy for the car. The song “Graceland” is such a great road trip song, especially through places like U.S. 101 through the hill-cradled farmlands south Monterey County or, as the song itself cites, the Mississippi Delta. The rhythm and the lyrics just nail the feeling of going somewhere for any number of reasons, but mostly for the sake of just going somewhere.

"These are the days of miracle and wonder"

Paul Simon is a songwriter with a particular knack for lyrics that stick with you like “How we look to a distant constellation that’s dying in a corner of the sky” or

“Along come a young girl, she's pretty as a prayerbook
Sweet as an apple on Christmas day
I said good gracious can this be my luck
If that's my prayerbook Lord let us pray”

Likewise, there are also memorable characters like “Fat Charlie the Archangel” and the “Girl in New York City who calls herself the Human Trampoline.” (And sometimes when I’m falling, flying, or tumbling in turmoil I say, “Whoa, so this is what she means.”)

Nine Tonight is a mashup of two 1980 Bob Seger concerts, one in Detroit and one in Boston. It’s a great album but it struck me as a little strange hearing him tell the audience how great it is to be back in Boston and then singing about northern Michigan summertime a few songs later. In any event, both audiences add a lot of excitement and energy to the record.

"Now sweet sixteen's turned [51] ... Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets!"

 I have for a long time maintained that the very best Bob Seger songs are either about rock and roll (namely, “Old Time Rock & Roll” and “Rock and Roll Never Forgets”) or are about a girl he might have loved but didn’t realize it until it was too late. The latter category includes “Night Moves,” “Roll Me Away,” and “Brave Strangers.” I also include “Hollywood Nights,” which was a bout a girl the guy didn’t realize he shouldn’t love until it was too late. These are songs that may make you think of a particular person from your past and put a smile on your face. It may be a wistful smile or it may be a relieved one, but you’ll smile nonetheless.

“So we walked out, hardly speaking, disappearing in the night
Saw each other a few times after, but we never really got it right
We weren’t lovers, just brave strangers…”

The last four songs on the Nine Tonight CD fall into one of these two categories: “Night Moves,” “Rock and Roll Never Forgets,” “Let It Rock” originally by Chuck Berry and turned up to eleven for the concert audience, and finally a concert version of “Brave Strangers” that I hadn’t even known existed before I read the back of the CD case.

Flying along Route 46 in the afternoon from Paso Robles to Lost Hills, singing as loudly and badly as I feel like; there are times when music is just perfect. I do love me a road trip.

Something I Heard: A Trio of Science Fiction Podcasts for Mother’s Day

Here are three Mother’s Day-themed science fiction stories from Lightspeed Magazine and Escape Pod.
 

“Conditional Love” by Felicity Shoulders was podcast February 11, 2011, at Escape Pod and read by Mur Lafferty (runtime 43:16). It takes place in a care facility for illegally genetically engineered children (or, more aptly, mis-engineered children) where a doctor meets a young boy who wakes up every morning and imprints on the first adult he sees. “Conditional Love” was a 2010 Nebula Award nominee.

“The Thing about Shapes to Come” by Adam-Troy Castro was podcast by Lightspeed Magazine January 2014 and read by Gabrielle de Cuir (runtime 47:00). This is a weird but touching story about a woman who gives birth to and raises a cube. Adam-Troy Castro also wrote “My Wife Hates Time Travel,” which I recommended as a Valentine’s Day story.
 

Finally, there’s “Raising Jenny” by Janni Lee Simner podcast at Escape Pod September 16, 2010, and read by Mur Lafferty (runtime 50:43). In it, a young woman accedes to her dying mother’s wish to give birth to her clone. She means to give little Jenny the support and freedom she felt she never got from her mother, but not turning into one’s own mother is a tricky thing, particularly in this case.

Now if you want a Mother’s Day-themed science fiction movie, you can’t go wrong with James Cameron’s 1986 classic Aliens with its climactic battle between Sigourney Weaver trying to protect a little girl and the alien queen trying to protect hundreds of its eggs.

Meanwhile, the only “Mother” in the original Alien is the Nostromo’s AI, which has been programmed to bring back a live alien even if it kills the entire crew. In 1979, Alien was the first R-rated movie I’d ever been to. My mom took me.

Something I Heard: Valentine’s Day Podcasts

I have never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day, largely for the same reasons as other people who are not big fans of Valentine’s Day. Twenty years of marriage has done much to dull my sharp disdain for the holiday, but still… Call it a grudge, if you will.

One of the things I do like, however, is listening to science-fiction and fantasy podcasts while going for walks during my lunch break at work. Two podcasts I listen to regularly are Escape Pod and Lightspeed Magazine. Anyway, I thought I’d recommend some sci-fi stories appropriate to the holiday that you can download and enjoy (or not, depending on your disposition). They come in three flavors: Sweet, bittersweet, and so, so bitter.

(Incidentally, I recommended some of these stories last year on my Facebook page, but didn’t really have the space to talk about them.)

Sweet: The first recommendation under the heading of “sweet” is “Impossible Dreams” by Tim Pratt, Escape Pod Episode 105 from May 2007. This is the story of a film nerd who finds a video rental place with a very unusual selection of movies and the girl working behind the counter who doesn’t quite know what to make of him. Tim Pratt’s had a bunch of his short stories podcast on Escape Pod and this one was a 2007 Hugo Award nominee. This is a sweet story for how it captures how exciting it is to meet someone who shares your passions and really gets you, even before the possibility of romance arises.

Not playing anywhere

 

The second story in the “sweet” category is “My Wife Hates Time Travel” by Adam-Troy Castro, Lightspeed Magazine September 2012. As it turns out, my wife hates podcasts. Fortunately, the page includes a text-on-screen version in addition to the audio version so I was able to share it with her. And I really wanted to share it with her. It’s that sweet. In this story, a couple knows that one of them is destined to invent time travel. They don’t know which one of them it is; all they know is they can’t get a moment’s peace thanks to the non-stop interference of their future selves.

 

Bittersweet: “I Look Forward to Remembering You” by Mur Lafferty is a bittersweet story from Escape Pod, July 6, 2006. Mur Lafferty’s also had a bunch of stories on Escape Pod and was the site’s editor-in-chief for awhile. This is the story of a woman who’s reached a point in her life where all she has is her memories. That’s not entirely right; she also has wealth and access to time travel technology and hires a service to go back in time and give her better memories. I love this story but, fair warning, it made me cry.

 It also references Ranma ½, which is awesome.

“I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll SeeYou in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan from Escape Pod episode 243, June 1, 2010, is a tale of love and time dilation and a couple who never quite makes it work but are never far from each other’s thoughts even over centuries and light-years. This is a pretty good story, but the definitive story of love (and war) and time dilation remains Joe Haldeman’s novel The Forever War.

Bitter: Finally, there are the bitter stories. “Love Might Be TooStrong a Word” by Charlie Jane Anders is from the August 2012 podcast of Lightspeed Magazine. If you think love stinks, especially this time of year, then imagine how much worse it might be with a rigid class system and four or five extra genders (and corresponding pronouns). Answer: Lots.

Then there’s Robert Silverberg’s “Ishmael in Love,” Escape Pod episode 113, July 5, 2007, originally published July 1970. So very bitter. It’s a story of a dolphin named Ishmael and the marine biologist he longs for. Anyone can tell at a glance that this is a relationship that will never, ever work except for Ishmael. Dolphins are supposed to be intelligent, but as Escape Pod host Stephen Eley notes in the afterword, we’ve all been the dolphin.

Here’s hoping you’re not the dolphin this year, but if you are, remember, February 15 is Discount Chocolate Day.