“What the heck does that title mean, anyway?”
Word Association
I expect most people are familiar with the concept of “word association“, not just the game, but the idea that we have a tendency to link things together in our heads, such that “tugging” on one word brings with it, usually automatically and not necessarily intententionally, one or more other words which are usually “close” to it.
Just as an example, take the word, Stop.
Perhaps that triggered “sign” or “light” or maybe even (depending on your age and music tastes, “… in the name of love”). Any of those, or anything else that leapt to your mind is part of your own personalized set of word associations.
Sometimes, of course, as you can say, the “linked to” item may not be a word – it might be a song lyric fragment, or the title, or something half-remembered from a book once read.
This post to describe (for the chance to write, and a desire to actually have more stuff for my blog – for me; and, for the hopefully entertainment value – for you) a “chain” that recently happened and where it went. It’s also a, perhaps(?), interesting peek into “How My Mind Works”.
The First Element
A few days ago, a tiny musical fragment popped, unbidden, into my head. I didn’t, at the time, have any lyrics to go with it, so it was just … there … teasing me.
Being curious, I tried to get it to “play” more in my head and started to hear more of the music and then came the “Ah ha!” moment of an actual set of words. Those words were “King of the Road”.
I knew the song … but at first I couldn’t recall any other lyrics. Well, of course, in dire (😜) situations such as this, there’s always the Internet for details. Plugging those four words in gave me, of course, King of the Road, by Roger Miller. Searched for lyrics and had most of the rest of them come flooding back to me. I couldn’t quite remember the entirety of the underlying music, though.
Search for song on the music “Thingy” I use and – POOF – there it was. Rather than sharing that, I will, however, share the a YouTube link / embed for it. This one includes the lyrics so you can sing along if you’d like.
I listened to this song a few times, not quite “on-repeat”, but close to it, for a day or two. And, yes, I now have the opening lyric, “Trailers for sale or rent …”, stuck in my head. I’m fine with this.
I’m sort of … tangentially familiar with the ideas in the song. But, out of further curiosity, i wanted to see what Miller’s actual source of inspiration (or sources) was. Aside from the sign that he purportedly saw which gave him the opening line, it was supposedly heavily influenced by the writings of Jack Kerouac.
The Next Step
Started doing a little research on Kerouac. For better or worse, I managed to ahem “avoid” pretty much all of the “required” reading when I was in high school. (In college, I didn’t take any courses which had any – I’d learned better.) Even with this avoidance, I somehow managed to get decent grades in English classes, probably (in hind-sight) due to the fact that I was always reading … just not necessarily reading what was assigned. [At the time I was in HS, I was finishing a new science-fiction or fantasy novel almost daily. Sure they were tiny by today’s standards, with the longest probably weighing in about just over 200 pages, but even so, it was a somewhat impressive amount of reading for a barely-teenager to consume.]
Consequently, I’ve never actually read any of the “masters”. Sure, I’ve picked up a lot of the ideas tangentially, and through osmosis, as well as through various other authors interpreting, re-interpreting, and re-presenting those ideas through their own works, but never directly.
After a little more time and … “On The Road” is now on my Goodreads “Need-to-buy” book list. This is the first step before “Waiting-To-Read”, followed eventually by “Currently-Reading” and then, finally, on to “Read”. [If you see this post and have your own Goodreads account, feel free to friend me and then we can both geek out over what the others are reading.]
Having gotten through this, I vaguely remembered a song from when I was younger which included some lyrics referencing Jack Kerouac. I didn’t have any other lyrics, nor even any “sense” of the music associated with it. Cue spinning gears animation …
I couldn’t find one I liked, so pretend it’s here, please?
The Third Step
I finally sort of “heard” at least the little piece of the song that specifically said “Jack Kerouac”. Yes, I realize, now, if I’d just searched up “Jack Kerouac song”, it would’ve taken me almost instantly there, but, as they say, “Hindsight is 20/20.”
The one thing I did remember was the singer. I didn’t remember the group, and I also knew that she (I did “hear” the singer, after all), had split off and gone solo. That’s fine. I mean, artist histories and who they were once associated with are well-documented, after all.
In case you haven’t looked it up yet, the singer was Natalie Merchant. The song in question was Hey Jack Kerouac (embed so you can enjoy it also) and she was with the group 10,000 Maniacs at the time. It’s from the album, In My Tribe (which I happen to still own on CD).
Having found where this came from / went, I listened to the song (Internet music “Thingy” again) and then realized I’d forgotten most of the songs from the album. Aside from generally being struck by how absolutely majestic Natalie Merchant’s voice is in some of the songs (at least at the time, as I haven’t listened to just about anything more recent from her).
I was also somewhat self-amused at “older me” thinking more about some of the lyrics and realizing there’s elements there which “older me” doesn’t like nearly as much. (I won’t go into details).
Where It Ended
One song from that album just utterly … struck a nerve. I have no idea why and was absolutely stunned by the emotional onslaught I was suddenly hit by. I won’t go into details, but I will include a solo performance by her of the song. Here, for your appreciation, is Natalie Merchant with … Verdi Cries.
This was it, though … and, I thought, an interesting look at how I managed to wend my way from “King of the Road” to “Verdi Cries”.
