Welcome back to "Baby I've Been Thinking." I needed some time away from writing to clear my head; now, I'm sufficiently empty-headed to blog again.In my weeks away, I missed a few musical anniversaries. The third of June is memorialized in song as the day Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge (as well as the day Neil Diamond lost his virginity to "Desiree," mistakenly thinking that June 3 falls in summer). And June 6 - D-Day, and one may well wonder if that detail was chosen for the gruff patriotism the date connotes - was the day C.W. McCall, a character created by an ad exec, led a group of rebellious truckers (and 11 long-haired Friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus, and what a great detail that was to include) on what was then called a "Convoy." Truckers banding together, too fast to stop, too big to fail. A successful example of sticking it to the man - except, for some reason, as they celebrate their victory in the final refrain, they sound a hell of a lot more like Muppets than truckers. I almost expect the trucks to start flinging furry and feathery livestock skyward.
"Convoy," which debuted in December 1975 and hit the top of the charts in early '76, then a year or two later was made into a movie, is one of the very first songs I heard as a child - we had the 45 and were keyed into CB culture, which Will Ferrell was absolutely correct to liken Twitter to. So when does someone write the first Twitter anthem?
PS: If you're new here, or just haven't visited much, this blog is now exactly 1 year old, and I hope you'll take a look through the archives and let me know what you've been thinking.
4 comments:
"We got a mighty Twitter feed, rockin' thru the ether..."
Nah, doesn't work for me.
But welcome back, bub!
The song broadcasts anarchy, in the best and worst terms. A smart-eared listener in '75 would have detected the anger expressed toward the government, anger that would develop into the Reagan Revolution in the 80s (for good or for ill). Also, I like the skillful use of 'truckin' convoy' to obviously mean 'fuckin' convoy.'
-D*
Welcome back, Joe. This blog is far too good to endure your absence for very long.
Mike and Sean - thank you so much! I'm glad I'm doing this again, and grateful for the kind words.
D* - I had a sophisticated enough (ahem) vocabulary in '76 that I recognized the truckin'/fuckin' thing (and I knew better than to say it). It's certainly a better expression of anger against the Man than "Take This Job and Shove It," which for all its bluster is really only about a relationship gone bad.
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