After the warm reception the first edition of Open Mic Adventures received, I figured I’d keep the fun going with a second installment.
This week’s featured tune should come as no surprise, seeing as I play the piano and sing. The technical, industry term for this combination is “singing pianist.” It says it all!
That said, even though I’ve been singing and playing piano for years (and in earnest for ten years now), I somehow never managed to perform Billy Joel’s iconic hit “Piano Man.”
I love many kinds of music, but I’m primarily a rocker—I like swaggering, almost comically masculine hard rock. I want to bang my head, shake my fists, and rock out to thundering power chords and hypnotic bass lines. When I listen to rock, I feel like a panther taking flight on the wings of a phoenix.
But I also have a softness—a weakness, really—for late Fifties/early Sixties doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. Sometimes—perhaps, embarrassingly often—that love extends to female torch singers (I promise, I’m an allegedly heterosexual man).
Lately, I’ve had the 1962 tune “Johnny Get Angry” stuck in my head—constantly. Songwriters Hal David and Sherman Edwards wrote this bit of bubblegum pop for Joanie Sommers, and it was a modest hit for the songstress.
That 1962 version is pretty catchy, and the instrumentation is interesting—especially the kazoo chorus when the key changes from D major to E major—but the version that really got me into this song is from the 1990 film Nightbreed, specifically the Clive Barker-approved director’s cut. Other versions of the film apparently were missing the song—performed by actress Anne Bobby in the role of heroine/love interest Lori Winston—which is a travesty, as it’s really key to highlighting the struggle inherent in Lori and Boone’s relationship in the flick.
Last week I celebrated MAGAWeek2022, my annual observance honoring the people, places, things, events, concepts, etc., that have, in their own ways, made America great (again).
For this extremely lazy edition of Lazy Sunday, here are the four entries from this year’s illustrious list of greats:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
This week is MAGAWeek2022, my celebration of the men, women, and ideas that MADE AMERICA GREAT! Starting Monday, 4 July 2022, this year’s MAGAWeek2022 posts will be SubscribeStar exclusives. If you want to read the full posts, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for as little as $1 a month. You’ll also get access to exclusive content every Saturday.
I joked Wednesday that I was honoring Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, a legend in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll history. But today I actually am honoring an rocker—an American, straight from the Motor City of Detroit, Michigan—whose commitment to the Second Amendment (and the United States) is borderline terrifying, in the best possible way.
His intense, in-your-face live shows and passion for bow-hunting—and showing respect for every kill—have made him a larger-than-life personality—fitting for a rock star. Like Led Zeppelin’s towering “Stairway to Heaven,” he had his own epic-length hit, the swaggering, masculine, slightly violent “Stranglehold“—one of my favorite songs for driving late at night.
I’m writing, of course, about the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent.
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The Portly Politico 