The soundtracks of our ongoing days and nights are vast and varied, with individual components set in their places by a divine artistic director that knows what He, She, or They are doing. When a mishap with my car forced me to postpone a long-planned and much-needed road trip originally set for the next morning, I blasted the entirety of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols to channel my anger and frustration. Decades ago, when a college girl I fancied went out with another guy, I sat on the floor of my dorm room, swilling beer and listening to Paul McCartney warble that he believed in yesterday.
There are songs for all occasions. The right tune can comfort, console, lift, motivate. It can offer catharsis or escape, band aid or blunt instrument, challenge or confirmation. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together.
Also dancing. Evidence suggests the right song can inspire dancing.
The Kinks' 1977 Sleepwalker album was released just as I was becoming increasingly fascinated by the Kinks. It was the right album at the right time, unencumbered by the larger themes of the group's then-recent series of concept albums, fittingly sprightly and energetic at a time when punk rock was also about to draw my interest. I saw the Kinks perform the album's title track on TV, on both The Mike Douglas Show and NBC's Saturday Night. Each of these home tube appearances was supplemented by older Kinks material--"Celluloid Heroes" on the Douglas show, an exciting medley of "You Really Got Me," "All Day And All Of The Night," "Well Respected Man," and "Lola" on the show soon to be renamed Saturday Night Live--reinforcing the connection between past and present. The Kinks weren't back; they'd never gone away.
I wound up absolutely obsessing over a Sleepwalker album track and single called "Juke Box Music." That song's bouncy saga of a girl who maintains a far-too-literal belief in the lyrics of the songs she loves resonated within my own ongoing conflict of thinking too much versus not thinking nearly enough, taking things too seriously (and being waaaay too thin-skinned) versus developing an elusive emotional and (quasi-) intellectual balance. As a college freshman in the fall of '77, I wrote a short story inspired by my interpretation of "Juke Box Music." It...wasn't very good. But my skills improved over time. It's only juke box scribblin', man.
But it's only meant to dance to, so you shouldn't take it to heart.
Only juke box music. Can anything that captivates us really be reduced to an only? I say no, but I also embrace the need for balance. We can't let passions interfere too much with the task of living our lives in this mundane world. As a slightly later Kinks song tells us, you've gotta live life.
But without our passions, is it really living?
In the spring of '78, I saw the Kinks in concert. "Juke Box Music" was their encore. Right place at the right time. God save serendipity, and God save "Juke Box Music."
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Carl's book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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