Song Lyric Sunday:What’s in Traffic?

Sunday is upon us again and it time Jim Adams to host Song Lyric Sunday. Today July 25 the prompt is – Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of sparksfromacombustiblemind.

So I thought what shall I choose there are so many great tunes out there. I was taken back to 1979. We had escaped from Exmouth in Devon, we had not quite made it back home to London but we were back in the hub. Life with two out of what would end up as three boys was not so hard. I always had my music. Gary Newman , part of the new wave was right up my street. I didn’t drive in those days, I had to walk everywhere! This song was actually released on our eighth wedding anniversary!

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“Cars” is the debut solo single by English musician Gary Numan. It was released on 21 August 1979 and is from his debut studio album, The Pleasure Principle. The song reached the top of the charts in several countries, and today is considered a new wave staple.

The song was the first release credited solely to Gary Numan after he dropped the band name Tubeway Army, under which name he had released four singles and two LPs, including the number one UK hit “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?“, and its parent album, Replicas. Musically, the new song was somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented than its predecessors, Numan later conceding that he had chart success in mind: “This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of ‘maybe it could be a hit single’; I was writing this before ‘Are “Friends” Electric?’ happened.” He has since described “Cars” as “a pretty average song”.

In the UK charts, it reached number 1 in 1979, and in 1980 hit number 1 in Canada two weeks running on the RPM national singles chart  ^{(29 weeks in the top 100). It was his only single to}chart there. It rose to #4 on the US Cash Box Top 100 and #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Though Numan had a string of hits in the UK, “Cars” was his only song in the American Pop charts.

information from Wiki.

Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It’s the only way to live in carsHere in my car
I can only receive
I can listen to you
It keeps me stable for days in carsHere in my car
Where the image breaks down
Will you visit me please
If I open my door in carsHere in my car
I know I’ve started to think
About leaving tonight
Although nothing seems right in carsSource: Musixmatch.

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Jalopy was a harder until in the back of my mind I remembered this Connie Frances song Hollywood. I was very young but I had older brothers and sisters and music was always playing in our house.

Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, former actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw. Information from Wikipedia

Whose jalopy is covered with junk
But don’t have any money for lunch?
It’s Hollywood, it’s HollywoodWho’s the local star
With the big, fine car?
It’s HollywoodWho wears the shady glasses after dark?
Who tries to talk the little girlie’s into parking?
It’s Hollywood, HollywoodWho’s the local yokel with
The horn rimmed bifocals?
It’s Hollywood
Go, go, goWho else would hold a cigarette like that?
Who else would wear a little Frenchy’s hat?
No one but Hollywood, HollywoodWho thinks he’s been around
But ain’t never been out of town?
It’s HollywoodI’ll give you just one little guess
At who old Hollywood’s trying to impress
You’re right, it’s Hollywood, HollywoodWho’s that farmer
Who think he’s a charmer?
It’s HollywoodYeah, it’s Hollywood all right
Here Hollywood, here’s a quarter
Go buy yourself some, ah, continental pants
Ascot, cigarette holder etc, etcSource: MusixmatchSongwriters: John D. Loudermilk.

*****

In the same year as the Gary Newman Track I heard Automobile by John Prime. It really could not of been any more different. The album Pink Cadillac blew my mind ..

John Edward Prine (October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American country folk singer-songwriter. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death, and was known for an often humorous style of original music that has elements of protest and social commentary.

Born and raised in Maywood, Illinois, Prine learned to play the guitar at the age of 14. He attended classes at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. After serving in West Germany with the U.S. Army, he returned to Chicago in the late 1960s, where he worked as a mailman, writing and singing songs first as a hobby, and then becoming a club performer.

A member of Chicago’s folk revival, Prine credited film critic Roger Ebert and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson with discovering him, resulting in the production of Prine’s eponymous debut album with Atlantic Records in 1971. The acclaim earned by this LP led Prine to focus on his musical career, and he recorded three more albums for Atlantic. He then signed with Asylum Records, where he recorded an additional three albums. In 1981, he co-founded Oh Boy Records, an independent record label with which he would release most of his subsequent albums.

Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, as well as serious songs with social commentary and songs that recollect melancholy tales from his life. In 2020, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Information from Wikipedia

February morning my car won’t start today
I turned the key at 8: 03
And the battery passed away
Inside a’ my automobileI want my automobile
I want my automobile
I want to drive it
All around this worldBride’s gettin’ married in the springtime
Widow’s gettin’ married in the fall
I got married in high school
Or I wouldn’t of got married at allI’d be drivin’ my automobile
Be drivin’ my automobile
Be drivin’ my automobile
I wanna drive it all around this worldEverybody said to the new groom
Groom, what ya gonna be
I said, I’m gonna be a symphony
Just as soon as I find a keyTo my automobile
I want my automobile
I want my automobile
All around this worldLet’s take a rideColumbus sailed the ocean
Moses parted the sea
Dolores left me yesterday
Well, I think she took the keyTo my automobile
I want my automobile
I want my automobile
Wanna drive it all around this worldNow, I held a little bitty baby
I held a woman all night
Whenever I get the hiccups
I hold my breath ’til my head gets lightThen, I drive my automobile
Yeah, I drive my automobile
I drive my automobile
I’m want to drive it all around this worldFebruary morning, my car won’t start today
Yeah, I turned the key at 8: 03
And the battery passed away
Inside a’ my automobileI’m drivin’ my automobile
Wanna my automobile
Wanna drive it all around this world
Go onIt is a beautiful day for a ride
Hey, get your head down I can’t see anything
Someone give me a cigarette
I don’t want to take my hands off the wheelWe ought to take the air filter off this sucker
So we can see what it will really do
Uh oh, it looks to me like a hospital zone
Everybody get quiet, shhDon’t wake the dead up
We’re almost out, hang on, uh, oh here we go
Well, you can just hold it until we get to the next townSource: Musixmatch.

Finally as I go here is Tracy Chapman with Fast Car for no other reason than I love it soooo much.

Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, known for her hits “Fast Car” and “Give Me One Reason“, along with other singles “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution“, “Baby Can I Hold You“, and “Crossroads“. She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award–winning artist.

Chapman was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she released her debut album, Tracy Chapman, which became a worldwide success. The album earned Chapman six Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year, three of which she won: Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single “Fast Car”, and Best Contemporary Folk Album. Chapman released her second album, Crossroads, the following year, which garnered her an additional Grammy nomination.

Since then, Chapman has experienced further success with six more studio albums, which include her multi-platinum fourth album, New Beginning, for which she won a fourth Grammy Award, for Best Rock Song, for its lead single “Give Me One Reason”. Chapman’s most recent album is Our Bright Future, released in 2008.

According to Metro Weekly critic Chris Gerard, “Fast Car” tells a grittily realistic story of a working poor woman trying to escape the cycle of poverty, set to folk rock music.The song’s arrangement was described by Orlando Sentinel writer Thom Duffy as “subtle folk-rock”,while Billboard magazine’s Gary Trust deemed the record a “folk/pop” song.Dave Marsh said it was perhaps an “optimistic folk-rock narrative”, whose characters are in a homeless shelter. Information from Wikipedia

Happy Sunday EVERYONE.💜💜💜

K.L.Caley’s#writephoto : Subsea.

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a speckled fish emerging from a pot in an underwater scene.

Subsea – Image by KL Caley

This is not a good look, Morgarna thought to herself. As she left one amphorae to investigate the next! It was empty too, she was beginning to lose her patience.
Merlin had tricked her again, he’d said, “beautiful clear waters, warmth and sun, sea and plenty to drink, what’s not to like” no mention of being under water with no hope of getting out, and instead of white rum ..water, salt water.
No Merlin owed her this time he’d gone too far, why was it always her that got the dirty end of the stick?
As Morgarna flipped back and forth she was, rather reluctantly, impressed with her swimming skills, very agile she mused.
Just as she was about to give up she saw it, a perfectly round golden sphere, the golden pearl of Atlantis.
There it was floating Infront of the amphora on the right. Okay all she had to do was capture it then job done and she’d make sure Merlin paid for it!
As she was wondering just how a fish might catch and transport a golden pearl, she saw a large fish approaching fast. He didn’t look like he was going to ask her out to dinner. He was looking at her as if she was the dinner.
Without thinking Morgarna swallowed the pearl, and darted off upward! The large fish was in hot persuit and gaining.
Come on thought Morgarna where are you. As she swerved this way and that feeling the large fish snapping at her tail she thought of all the ways she was going to make Merlin pay!
Then she felt sharp teeth gripping her tail, a slight panic began to rise somewhere inside the body she was in. (hard to tell where when it’s not your body)
Just as she decided she’d better make a few “Mea Culpas” she saw the anomaly inches away. With all her might Morgarna threw herself into it.

Landing with a splosh on the Laboratory carpet, naked as the day she was born and with a medium sized fish attached to her bum. She looked up and saw a shocked Merlin looking down on her!
He reached out to help her up but she batted his hand away. Removing the fish gently from her behind she got up and relocated it in the large fish tank by the coffee machine.
“Did you get it?” asked Merlin ..
“Oh! Thanks Hun, yes I am okay, soaking bloody wet and my hair will take ages to recover from the sea water! Plus I have a bruised arse! ” Morgarna hissed.
“Yes I know” Merlin replied, “but did you get it.”
“Of course I did” she replied grimacing. “Can I see it?” Merlin was getting irritated now.
A smile crossed Morgarna’s face. “Yes in a couple of days time….it’s in my tummy, it needs to be digested and expelled, then sweetie you can have it …and clean it!” Morgarna ended on a shout.
Turning on her heal she marched off to the bathroom calling over her shoulder, “anything but fish and chips for dinner …. Hun.”
Merlin watch her gorgeous back disappear into the bathroom, he smiled to himself and grabbed the car keys.
Later on the sofa enjoying her second Bacrdi and coke Morgarna felt movement in her gut…. She decided not to tell Merlin yet…. He could stew a while! “

******

THIS IS PART OF K.L. CALEYS #WRITEPHOTO.

Laundry Limerick.

This is part of Esther’s Challenge : Laugh-Along Limerick, held at Lance’s write to inspire, if you fancy joining in.

There was a young laundress named Jane
Who found her work a huge pain.
So she threw in the sponge with a smile
Then ran a one minute mile
Never to be seen at the laundry again!

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS July 17, 2021.

Badge by Shelley Krupa.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “least-favorite word.” Use your least-favorite word in your post. If you can’t decide on one, use a word that just really bugs you. Enjoy!

Now I love words , I suppose you could say they are my life. Really I cannot think of a “least favourite word” or even one that bugs me. I find I get more irritated by sentences, or statements like “at the end of the day” or “do you see what I mean” “or have a nice day” repeated after sentences!

I really can’t think of a word that bugs me enough to moan about. Even Anglo Saxon words have their beauty.

Linda has asked us to try
To speaker on words we don’t like
To think of any that make me cry
Is harder than riding a bike!
I’ve sat here now for an hour or more.
Staring at my phone now my eyes are sore.
So Linda I’m beat
I refuse to lie or cheat
I’m sorry but I get zero score.

THIS IS PART OF LINDAGHILL’S Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

K. L. Caley’s #writephoto. Community.

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a collection of toy people all gathered around a sign with the word “Community” on it

Community – Image by KL Caley

Well 15 months on and still the pandemic was causing havoc. Most people had to work from home. For many this meant long days and nights alone with a computer screen. For Pete it had become depressing, soul destroying.
He made sure he got out for at least an hour’s walk everyday, he used his exercise bike in the evening, had his shopping delivered and made sure he cooked good healthy food.
When he could, he’d get out and meet friends…… That had been impossible during the early lockdowns. Things were finally beginning to come together and ease for now ( no one could be sure what the the next few weeks could bring.)
Pete opened his daily meeting, only to be greeted by empty screens on mute. In the beginning everyone had been eager to join in the meetings, screens and sound on. Slowly they had all withdrawn.
“Come on guys I am bending over backwards to help you guys… For pity’s sake cut me me some slack!” Pete shouted.
Slowly screens filled with his techs and engineers and program architects.
He smiled “hi guys we have the big boss joing us today!”
Just then the boss appeared on his screen.
“Right guys we want you all back in the office for the end of September, three days a week.”
Pete could not control himself he jumped up clapping and cheering! It broke the ice everyone laughed! The boss smile and asked Pete was he pleased!
Pete thanked goodness an end was in sight and that he’d got dressed properly this morning.
Later that day when the team signed in for their next meeting they all looked askance at Pete’s square.. there was a white edged, grey, board with the word Community on it and infront a collection of five toy figures doing different things.
After a second or two Pete’s face appeared….”that’s us guys we are a team, we are a community! Keep those screens on , unmute your devices. Let’s communicate let’s rebond.”

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This is part of K.L.Caleys #writephoto.

July 8: Flash Fiction Challenge

July 8, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features feathers. It can be a single feather or more. Where did the feather come from? Does it hold meaning to the character or story? Go where the prompt leads!

Feathers.

Tom reached out and caught the feather. He smiled, angel feather he thought. 

The angel above him was weeping, their feathers were falling soon so would the angel. 

Tom held the feather, “jump” he said looking up, “I will catch you.” The angel  knew they could trusted him, Tom had faith enough for both of them.

Another feather fell into his hand, the angel’s tears dried and they smiled. Taking the leap of faith the angel fell into Tom’s arms. Falling the angel became whole. Love shone from Tom’s eyes. The angel naked but safe knew he was home.

99 words no more no less.

One-Liner Wednesday. More Family Humour. What?

Having just sat, nerves on edge through the England v Denmark semi finals! We got a message from Eldest son.

“I was so bored with the Match that I bought myself a new bike.”

How could he of been bored?

PART OF LINDAGHILL’S ONE-LINER WEDNESDAY.

Whoever they were they were not bored.

Apparently today was World Chocolate Day.

Death by Chocolate.

Warm and soothing as it covers me whole,
Erasing my mind and stealing my soul.
Happily drowning enjoying my fate
Better than sex all my yearnings sate.
Finding every crack and crevice of me.
Filling me up , seeping in, tightening, sealing my skin
So I am no longer free.
They warned me, told me to take care
I just ignored them, I’m drowning laid bare.
Little did I know when that menu read
Death by Chocolate, it meant what it said!

Hope you had a chocolaty day

Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge Prompt No. 65: (GO) in the B rhyme line.

Parliament still leads the dance
Question is should masks stay or go.
They’re also stopping lateral flow.
Go into work now take a chance.
Coughs on transport get sideways glance.
No longer heed the Delta strain
Rishi Sunak is out for gain.
So rules will be relaxed we smile.
As confusion reigns all the while.
As our safety goes down the drain !

This is my entry for Ronovanwrite’s Weekly Décima. I have link my Décima to my Ronovanwrite’s Weekly Haiku Challenge.

Ronovan Writes #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge 365 LAUGH and We.

still confusion reigns
rules will be relaxed, we laugh.
trouble is ahead.

This is part of Ronovanwrite’s Weekly Haiku Challenge.