#219) "Theme from The Bob Newhart Show" - Yes, I know, it's not really road music, but as I've written more than a few times, if 1/48/50 turns out to be at all about taking the past along with me (and I'm sure it will), then some of those little shimmering points of light from my childhood, that appear late at night sometimes when I'm trying to sleep, have to come along as well. Especially the beautiful ones.
I was a young child in the 70s, and my parents watched a lot of TV, and whenever I was in the living room, whether I was climbing onto my mother's lap (only to climb off again 30 seconds later), or camped out on the living room floor, either with toys or no toys at all (just bored out of my gourd), or maybe hiding out from my older brother for some reason, it was this kind of music playing in the background. Theme songs from shows like Bob Newhart, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Good Times, etc., are inextricably linked to those early, formative years in my mind, and had, I think, a favorable impact.
I'm especially fond of the Bob Newhart theme. I didn't watch the show (I was too young to get it), but I sure as hell listened to the theme song. That drew me in the first time I heard it, and as it was a show my parents watched readily, it pretty much came to encapsulate what everything sounded (and looked) like when I was five, six, seven and eight years old: a gray or tan-hued blend of comforted melancholy and earnest "tomorrow is another day" hope.
The music certainly will always remind me of my mother, who passed away last month. 😔 Doubtless I'll want to take her memory along with me on 1/48/50.
NOTE: It has to be this version, from Season 1. In later seasons, the melody was re-tooled into a disco jam, to reflect both the popularity of the show and (I guess) those funky Seventies. Meh. The original cut is where the beauty's at. The horn and piano arrangement at the end is gorgeous (as is Suzanne Pleshette's heady gaze into the camera)...it still casts me into a dreamy, child-like state.
Maybe I shouldn't listen to this while I'm driving. ;-)
#220) "End Theme from WKRP in Cincinnati" - THIS theme song also reminds me of my childhood, but for very different reasons. There's no "comforted melancholy" here, if anything the complete opposite. This might very well be the first song I ever actually "jammed out" to, lol.
And why the hell not? With an impassioned guitar riff, energetic, thumping rhythm, and garbled lyrics that leave the listener no choice but to make up his or her own, "The End Theme to WKRP in Cincinnati" (including the MTM kitten mewling at the end....again, why not?) remains jam-worthy to this day. I never get tired of listening to this.
Unlike Bob Newhart, I loved watching WKRP in Cincinnati when I was a kid, and I still do. For the most part I think the show holds up, with subtle humor delivered by a great ensemble cast. And having worked in radio myself, I can say that they got it right. This is pretty much how radio life is...or WAS, I guess. Don't know anymore.
Man, I miss it sometimes.
Surprisingly, much has been written and/or discussed online about the song's unintelligible lyrics, which reportedly were intended to reflect a common complaint by those "over 30" back in the day: that when it came to rock and roll music, you "can't even understand the lyrics!"
Everyone who remembers the show probably has their own interpretation. This is what I hear:
"Bare toothed bartender, bumps the night ahead
Sara on her horse and whack-a-ballers in our heart
I sent good vibes, and I have better hair
Meow!"
