Rant #2,502: "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" Because "I Am Woman"

Amid a very busy Tuesday—the presidential debates and the beginning of the baseball playoffs—I would like to focus on the passing of two people who made their marks in the music of the 1970s who passed on yesterday.

 
The first is Mac Davis, the singer/songwriter who galvanized us with his music as he parlayed his good looks into “good ole boy” status during the decade of the pet rock.
 
Davis, who died after complications from heart surgery, was 78 years old.
 
He burst on the scene in the late 1960s after years of knocking at the door of stardom, first as a songwriter, penning such Elvis Presley comeback hits as “In the Ghetto” and “A Little Less Conversation,” but once the 1970s called, all of that was almost forgotten, as Davis became his own brand name.
 
“Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” was his biggest solo hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1972.
 
He had other major hits on the chart, including “Stop and Smell the Roses” (No. 9, 1974) and “Rock N’ Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life) (No. 15, 1974), and in total, placed 15 songs under his own name on the Hot 100 through 1981. He had even more hits on the country chart during this period.
 
He continued to write for others, and his best known composition during this period was “I Believe In Music,” which was recorded by many artists, including Gallery, which took the song to No. 22 in 1972.
 
Davis was almost ubiquitous on TV, and his good looks and funny banter found him as a guest star on everything from “The Tonight Show” to his own variety show from 1974 to 1976.
 
He was also in a number of movies, where he parlayed his country boy personality into starring roles in movies such as “North Dallas 40” and “The Sting II.”
 
Helen Reddy, the Australian-born singer/songwriter who became a cultural icon with her recording of “I Am Woman,” also passed away yesterday, She was 78 years old and had not been well for some time with a variety of ailments.
 
Reddy had a 10-years span, 1971 to 1981, where she placed 21 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, but although she was best known for the women’s empowerment song “I Am Woman,” it was not her first hit single.
 
That accolade went to “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” the signature song from the play “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which she took to No. 13 early in 1971.
 
But from there, she was nearly unstoppable on the charts.
 
Following a couple of mid-chart songs, “I Am Woman”--which she co-wrote--came out as the women’s rights movement was picking up steam, and the song hit No. 1 in early summer of 1972, but this was essentially a re-release of the song. It was first released earlier that year, and stumbled to No. 97. But Capitol Records had great faith in the song, and with its placement in the film “Stand Up and Be Counted,” the song took off once again, and became one of the iconic songs of the women’s movement.
 
That tune catapulted Reddy’s career, and she had numerous Top 20 hits after that, including “Delta Dawn” (No. 1, 1973), “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” (No. 3, 1973), and “Angie Baby” (No. 1, 1974).
 
And like Davis, she parlayed her music into many TV appearances, on such shows as “The Tonight Show” and her own show in 1973, as well as becoming the co-host of “The Midnight Special.”
 
She also appeared in numerous films, including “Airport” and “Pete’s Dragon.”
 
Ironically, Reddy also recorded Davis’ “I Believe In Music,” which was the original A side to her breakthrough single “I Don’t Know How To Love Him.”
 
Reddy pretty much left show business in the early 2000s, and became a hypnotherapist., but returned briefly in the 2010s.
 
She had suffered from Addison’s disease and dementia.
 
We lost two 1970s icons yesterday in Davis and Reddy, but their legacy lives on in their vast recording histories.
 
And isn’t it funny how their careers intersected with “I Believe In Music”?
 
Funny thing is that I think they lived that title, and we were all the better for it.
 
R.I.P.

Rant #2,501: Back In the Saddle Again

 

I am back in the saddle today after taking Monday off for Yom Kippur.
 
I have to say that this year’s holiday was quite a bit different than past such holidays, because my father was not there to celebrate it with our family.
 
But we did get through it.
 
My mother and I said yiskor for him not in a synagogue, but in the house.
 
Funny, for some reason, I wanted to see if it was OK to do this in a residence rather than a synagogue, but reciting the Jewish prayer for those who have passed on is permissible if said in places away from a temple, so we did it that way.
 
Not that we would not have done it if it wasn’t permissible, but I guess this just made it better in our own minds.
 
Later in the day, we celebrated the end of the Yom Kippur fast with my sister’s family. I was the only one who fasted this year all the way through, and I have to say that it was a good and easy fast: no major hunger pains and no buzz headaches or anything like that.
 
And I ate and ate and ate some more, probably overdoing it a bit, but that is what I did.
 
Prior to the Yom Kippur holiday, on Saturday, it was the next permutation of this year’s Record Store Day, broken up into three separate days due to the pandemic.
 
I did not purchase very much—I am on a budget and honestly, there wasn’t very much that suited my fancy to begin with—but I went, I bought and I conquered.
 
What more can I say?
 
I also gave a donation to an animal cause supported by my local record store, so I feel good about my participation in this year’s RSD celebration.
 
And then later on Saturday, my son’s bowling league started.
 
This is an important milestone for the participants, including my son, who have not seen many of their fellow participants in about six months due to the pandemic.
 
It is time to try to start moving toward normalcy again, and for my son, this is one giant step forward.
 
He is on the same team as he always is, but what the league did is to limit the teams to three participants each, rather than four, to cut down on the contact between the players.
 
They also take temperatures of all the participants and the parents that are there, and we have to fill out a few forms attesting to the fact that everybody is OK and free of the coronavirus.
 
There are dividers between the lanes to further protect the players.
 
“Slapping five” is not allowed, but you can “elbow bump” if the occasion arises.
 
I had taken my son to practice bowl since the bowling alleys reopened in our area, so he had about five weeks of practice under his belt prior to this first day of the league, and I am happy to say that the practice time helped my son immensely.
 
He bowled as good as he has ever bowled on opening day, scoring 185 and 167 scores. Since he is generally a 123 to 125 bowler, this was absolutely amazing, and with everyone cheering him on, I knew he felt so good about finally doing something that he loves to do.
 
We dedicated his games to the memory of his grandfather, who I just know was looking down from heaven and smiling from ear to ear at his grandson’s accomplishments.
 
On late Sunday, as Yom Kippur was starting, the WWE had a pay per view event, “Clash of Champions,” that I watched with my son, and it managed to keep me up the entire three hours that it was on.
 
It actually was quite good this time around, so it kept both myself and my son going as a fun event, one that capped an interesting weekend and one that heralded the beckoning Jewish new year.
 
We are not a religious family, but we are Jews, and this new year affirms our faith in God and everything that happened to us during the past year and will happen to us in the coming year.
 
So far, so good.
 
Now, if we can find out the future for my son with his job, everything will pretty much be in place for a rebound year.
 
I can only hope, and pray, that we find out soon, and it is a positive.
 
If I had one wish for the year, my wish would be that we all get back to some normalcy, and that includes getting my son back to his job.
 
I don’t have that magic lamp to rub, and I don’t have Barbara Eden to grand me my wish.
 
But at least I can hope, and maybe dream a little … .

Rant #2,500: Brand New Me

 

Wow!

That is what I have to say.

Wow!

It’s the confluence of two major celebrations—one joyous, one somber—here at the Ranting and Raving Blog.

First of all, it’s time to give ourselves a par on the back, because today, we have reached 2,500 posts.

I think that that is a pretty huge accomplishment, if I do say so myself.

Since May 4, 2009—nearly 11 and a half years—this blog has given you my insights into everything under the sun, everything from sports, to politics, to my likes and dislikes, to just about any topic that suited my fancy, and my words.

There have been many changes to the blog—we were hacked at one point, forcing me to set up the Ranting and Raving Blog II—and earlier this month, the format of the blog changed, and I was forced to search around for another suitable landing site, only to revert back to this one.

It has forced me to make changes in the way I set up the blog, some of which I don’t like and of which I am not yet comfortable—but the blog rolls on, and it will be turning a solid 12 years old in the coming months.

During my period of joblessness, I always had the blog to turn to, to rev up my writing engines once again, at least for a few moments.

Now as a retired person, it allows me to do what I like to do the most—write, write and write some more—and in the process, it helps me to become a better writer, and to engage my readers—you guys and gals—in topics that I feel are important enough to write about.

And as we celebrate our 2,500th post, it also is a somber occasion, because we are fast coming up on the holiest day on Jewish calendar, Tom Kippur, signifying the coming of the new year.

This year, the holiday begins at sunset on Sunday night and ends at nightfall on Monday evening,

Unlike other new year celebration, the Jewish New Year is somber, reflective and it provides insight to where you have been and where you are going as an individual.

With all else going on in the world today, it also gives us pause, gives us time to look at the past and look at the future at almost the same time.

Way back in Rant #811, exactly eight years ago to the day on September 25, 2012, I wrote the following, and it still applies today. So with some slight editing, here is what I wrote about Yom Kippur way back when:

"For Jews around the world, this is the holiest time of the year, the time where we pause to reflect on what we did the past year and how we can begin anew in the new year.

Even many non-observant Jews follow this holiday, and this is the only time that they venture into a synagogue during the entire calendar year.

Prayer and reflection are paramount here, as is refraining from drinking or eating anything for the duration of the holiday.

Some Jews don't even bathe, watch television, drive cars or do anything but pray and fast during this period, which ends when the shofar is blown at Yom Kippur services.

I will be fasting again this year, and it isn’t as difficult as it appears to be. From my personal experience, fasting is not hard to do. Sure, it takes you out of your routine, but it really isn't that difficult to do for a day.

What is difficult is doing it while you are in synagogue. The constant getting up and sitting down--when the Torah is displayed--makes it very difficult.

I remember in the old days, you would hear women crying in the back of the synagogue. Not eating can do that to you.

As far as my family, my wife has tried and can't do it, my son the same, my daughter, I know she has tried but she can't do it, either, or at least not without some level of water intake.

I have to tell you, after I fast I feel very, very good. It is almost as if everything bad in my body has been cleansed out of it by fasting. I might have a little buzz headache, but this is something I have been doing continually since I was 12 or 13, so  am pretty much used to it.”

And that is pretty much the sum total of it.

So to all my Jewish friends, and to all of those people I know who aren't, Happy New Year to everyone.

I will be taking off on Monday to observe the holiday, so I will speak to you again on Tuesday.

Have a good weekend, and if you are feasting, have an easy fast, and a wonderful new year.

And that really goes for everybody.

Let’s try to make a new start for ourselves.

With all the is happening, it won’t be easy, but let’s refresh ourselves, let’s reboot ourselves, and let’s make the remainder of this year as good as we can, and look forward to next year as something much better.

I know that will be difficult, but we can do it, I know that we can.

Rant #2,499: Turn To Stone

Yesterday was kind of a sad day in my house, a day we were not looking forward to, but a day that had to come and one that we had to face.

Yesterday morning, I went to a monument dealer and we picked out a headstone for my father’s grave.

I don’t even know what you call a business that designs gravestones or headstones--is it a masonry?--but that is where we went yesterday morning, to a place not very far from where my father had his funeral service and the cemetery in which he is buried.

The business handles all types of cemetery markers for all denominations, and we found that they had a wide catalog of Jewish headstones that we could choose from.

When you choose such a headstone, you pay for the style and by the word, and my mother wanted it to be as simple as possible—but it is costly no matter what route you go.

I will not tell you exactly what will be on the completed headstone, but I will tell you that it will feature my father’s name, his Hebrew name, and a few words about him.

Creating such a headstone is a long process, and we were told that we probably won’t hear about it until the spring of next year, when my mother will have to give the go-ahead to the final proof of the headstone.

And from there, the headstone is created, and we won’t have it for about a year after my father passed away, so it will be ready on September 7, 2021, exactly a year after he died.

Jews have what is referred to as an “unveiling” of the headstone, where a group of family members witness the finished product standing over the grave.

It is a somber occasion, one that not too many people want to talk about or remember, but it is pretty much the end of the entire process, from the person’s passing, to the funeral service, to the burial, to the mourning period.

And then, as tradition has it, the family visits the grave as many times during the year as they would like to do so, and stones are put on the top of the marker, to signify that they had been there and have seen that the site has been kept up well.

“Perpetual care” handles that, allowing family members to visit the grave and be assured that the site is being kept up, which means that it is free of weeds, whatever plant life is there is sculpted correctly, and that the land around the grave is manicured on a regular basis.

And yes, such care also makes sure that they grave is not desecrated in any way, shape or form.

Yesterday was a sad occasion, but one that we had to endure. My mother got through it pretty well, because she knew exactly what she wanted the headstone to look like. There was really no discussion at all about it; she knew that she wanted it simple, and that is what we will get.

It’s funny … my father always said that his headstone should be special, that it should have a screen built into it and that when a button on the grave was pushed, a video would come on of him talking about his life.

We never knew if he was joking or not, but that is what he said … with a wry smile on his face.

Well, he isn’t going to get that—he will get just the opposite of such an ornate idea—but he will get something that celebrates his life in the proper way, with a few words speaking volumes about the man he was and still is to all who knew him.

Yes, yesterday was a difficult day for us, but I think my father would be happy with what we got him.

Its simplicity is the key here, because although it will feature few words, those words will resonate in perpetuity about the type of man, husband, father and grandfather that he really was.

Rant #2,498: Born To Run

Today is September 23, and it is a day of celebration for so many people who simply love rock ‘n roll music.

Today is Bruce Springsteen’s birthday, and he turns 71 years of age today.

Even though I am a big rock ‘n roll fan, I am not a Bruce Springsteen fan. Never have been, and never will be.

I simply cannot get into his music at all, and I know that a lot of people would knock me for that … they would say, “How can you say that you love rock ‘n roll music but you don’t like Bruce?”

Well, I don’t, so there.

Since bursting on the scene in the early to mid-1970s, Springsteen has become a musical icon in some people’s minds, the guy who has kept the rock ‘n roll flame burning brightly through all the changes and trends in popular music.

He has been there through disco, through punk and new wave, through techno and hip hop and rap and anything else that has come our way during the past nearly 50 years.

He burst onto the scene with “Born To Run”—the only song of his that I actually kind of like—but his story actually started years earlier, in the Asbury Park section of New Jersey.

Due to contractual conflicts, although he was a much sought after artist by record companies, he could not sign with them until some things had to be worked out, but once Columbia Records got him, there was no stopping him.

He received tremendous airplay on FM radio, in particular in the New York City area, where he was looked at as something of a rock god by radio stations like WNEW-FM, a station that played his music incessantly at times.

During the MTV era, he broke through on Top 40 radio, too, with songs like “Dancing In the Dark,” but although his career paralleled that of Billy Joel, their directions were really quite different.

Joel—beloved in his native Long Island, and like Springsteen, adopted by New York City radio stations as something of a savior—went the sort of rock ‘n roll/Tin Pan Alley route with his music, but Springsteen mixed grit and grime with his mix of folk and rock ‘n roll, polishing up his music at times to reach more of the masses.

Funny, I have never been much of a Billy Joel fan, either, but with Joel, there are some songs of his that I really like.

Springsteen, I don’t know, I just never got into his music at all.

Maybe you have to see Springsteen live in concert to truly appreciate him.

Backed by the E Street Band, his concerts are legendary three-hour-plus exercises, and I have heard that even if you aren’t a fan of his, once you go to a Springsteen concert, you become a fan for life.

I give him all the credit that should be coming to him, because even in his early 70s, he shows no sign of slowing down at all, still releasing new product every few years.

And after a stint on Broadway, of all places, you can bet that if he could tour right now, he would, but the pandemic has put a hold on any live concerts at least for now.

I still haven’t said specifically why I don’t like Bruce Springsteen’s music, simply because I cannot accurately pinpoint a reason why.

Some things in music I immediately attach onto—the Beatles would be an example of that—and some things I have to hear again and again and again to fully appreciate them.

But with Springsteen, the interest at least for me has been somewhat elusive, and I just cannot pinpoint exactly why I am not a fan, but I’m not.

I know that what I am saying might be looked at as sacrilegious by some, but I have to be honest about it.

If you are a fan, today is a day to rejoice.

If you are not a fan, it’s just another day on the calendar.

But happy birthday to “The Boss,” and I wish him many, many more years of good health and, I guess, good music.

Now, about Billy Joel … .

Rant #2,497: Pillow Talk

 

Another good morning to you.

This has not been the best morning for me thus far, even at this early hour.

I did not sleep well last night, and if I did not finally fall asleep like I did, I would probably have been typing this Rant out way earlier than I am doing now.

I was really about a minute or two away from getting up out of the bed and doing that, but I fell asleep around midnight, and then was up several times after that.

Too much going on in my brain last night.

The main thing I was thinking about was my son, who is going on seven months on furlough and out of work. He will reach that point in mid-October, and right now, there is no solution to his problem.

He works for a good company, and he had a job that he really liked. But in mid-March, companies were forced to close down due to the pandemic, and his company shut down, leaving him on furlough.

And we had no idea it would last so long.

His company has kept in contact with him, by and large, and he is still a member of their employee team, but at nearly seven months and counting, I simply do not know what his future is with them.

And he is hard to place to begin with. He is developmentally disabled, so his chances of finding a job elsewhere are limited.

But every day he gets up from bed, and hopes that he hears some news, some positive news, from his company.

They had a team-building effort some weeks ago, where they organized a parade for their employees who were on furlough, and I know that that made my son feel really good.

But since then, he has heard little from them, and it is getting to the point that you have to wonder what his future with them actually is.

We know that many of their employees are working at home, with just a skeleton crew working in their office.

But thus far, my son has not received the call he is waiting for, the call to come back to work. He only worked part time there—20 hours a week—but he loved doing what he was doing, and the staff loved him back.

It was a win/win for everyone, until the pandemic struck, and then it became a nightmare … and last night, this is all I was thinking about.

What is our next move?

When all of this happened in March, I did speak with the executives there, and they basically laid out what was happening, and they stated that my son still had his job, but they had to wait to see how they would progress in the middle of this environment.

I subsequently spoke to them once or twice afterward, just to assure myself—and my son—that his job was still one that they hoped to call him back to.

But now, it is nearly seven months, and we have not received any updates at all, and we only heard from them when my son was contacted as part of a call list they have when they had some type of computer glitch related to their at-home workers.

We have heard nothing else, and I mean, nothing.

So last night, this is all I was thinking about, and I was also thinking about our next move.

I think what I am going to do is give it until October, and then, I am going to have to contact them as I did months ago to find out where my son stands with his job.

Is he still in their plans, is he going back, is there some type of timetable for his return … I think after all this time, we have a right to know one way or the other.

This has been a horrid time for us all, and our family has really been hit hard during these past several months.

My personal situation is pretty horrid, but my son’s is even more dire because of his own personal situation … and he is just 25 years old, right at the beginning of his work career.

So this is what kept me up last night, tossing and turning and trying to find a good place to put my head.

As it is, the past several months have put my head completely out of joint, and I don’t know the next time I will find that soft spot in my pillow.

Getting my son back to work would be a step in the right direction.