Association – "Along Comes Mary" (1966)

And when the morning
Of the warning's passed 

The gassed and flaccid kids
Are flung across the stars

The psychodramas
And the traumas gone

The songs are left unsung
And hung upon the scars

[NOTE: I first wrote about our next 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME song – a work of genius that was written by Tandyn Almer, who suffered from bipolar disorder and lived in obscurity in Washington, D.C., for many years before he died in 2013 – back in 2010.  What follows is a slightly edited version of my original post.]

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I'm looking at the KQYX "Pepsi Sing-a-Long Survey" for May 26, 1966 (the week I turned 14).  

KQYX was the top 40 station in my hometown – Joplin, Missouri – when I was a teenager.  KQYX's frequency was 1560, so its weekly surveys featured the "Top 15" and the "Plus 60," plus five "KQYX climbers" and a "Pick Hit of the Week" – altogether, 81 songs.

A KQYX "Pepsi Sing-a-Long Survey"

One of my nerdier hobbies as a kid was listening to faraway AM radio stations.  It's called "DX'ing" – "DX" is ham-radio shorthand for a distant station.  (I still remember most of the clear-channel AM stations that I could reliably pick up – 700 was Cincinnati, 750 was Atlanta, 760 Detroit, 780 Chicago, 820 Dallas, etc., etc., etc.)

Some of the guys who were in the AM DX'ing club I joined for a few years also collected printed radio station top-record lists and traded them, so I have dozens of such lists from large and small radio stations around the country.

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I think it's amazing how many great songs – and what a diverse group of great songs – are on this KQYX survey.  (I've provided links to Youtube videos for some of these songs.)

"When a Man Loves a Woman" (Percy Sledge) was #1 that week – not a personal favorite of mine, but a well-known classic.

The Supremes held down to the #2 spot with "Love Is (Like an Itching in My Heart") – not one of their biggest hits, but classic Motown.

#3 was Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35." ("Everybody must get stoned" – I'm a little surprised that one got airplay in Joplin).

#4 was "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and Papas – a wonderful song and a perfectly conceived and executed recording.

#5 was "Groovy Kind of Love," by the Mindbenders ("When I'm feelin' blue/All I have to do is /Take a look at you/Then I'm not so blue" – a classic "British Invasion" song).

#6 – "It's a Man's World"/James Brown.

#9 – "Green Grass"/Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

#10 – "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More"/Walker Brothers.

#11 – "How Does That Grab Ya, Darlin' ?"/Nancy Sinatra.  (All of Nancy's songs were pretty much the same song – you smart-aleck tomcat, you!)

#12 – "I Am a Rock"/Simon and Garfunkel.

#15 – "Sweet Talkin' Guy"/Chiffons.

#17 – "Sloop John B"/Beach Boys.

#18 – "Paint It Black"/Rolling Stones.

#20 – "Did You (Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind)"/Lovin' Spoonful.

#21 – "Good Lovin' "/Young Rascals.  (This was one of the songs the band I was in with Jack Davidson, Joe Davis, Bruce Hodson, and Jim Matthews played a year or so later at the South Junior High 9th-grade coronation.  I remember listening to this 45 over and over and over.)

#26 – "Eight Miles High"/Byrds.  (I was never a big Byrds fan, but this is an astonishingly original song – everything about it is distinctive and unique.  To me, one of the top 10 AM-radio songs of all time.)

#27 – "Red Rubber Ball"/Cyrkle.  (Written by Paul Simon.)

#34 – "Message to Michael"/Dionne Warwick (one of her many classic Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned hits).

#35 – "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"/Dusty Springfield.  (The greatest female top-40 voice ever?)

#36 – "Kicks"/Paul Revere and the Raiders.  (We know all about them, don't we?)

#47 – "Bang, Bang"/Cher.

#53 – "Somebody Help Me"/Spencer Davis Group.  (Steve Winwood before there was Traffic.)

#54 – "Road Runner"/Jr. Walker and the All-Stars.  (Classic Memphis soul – perhaps not as good as "Shotgun," but solid.)

#58 – "Hold On, I'm Comin' "/Sam and Dave.  (More classic Memphis soul.)

#60 – "Shapes of Things"/Yardbirds.  (Jimmy Page before there was Led Zeppelin.)

#70 – "Louie Louie"/Kingsmen.  (Once of the most incompetent hit singles ever recorded – often imitated, but never exceeded.)

#72 – "Cool Jerk"/Capitols. 

#74 – "Li'l Red Riding Hood"/Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs.

And last but not least, we come to today's featured record – one of the "climbers" that week.  "Along Came Mary" was the first successful single from the Association – not its biggest hit (they had two #1 singles and a #2 in 1966 and 1967), but its best song by far, IMHO.

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I wonder how many of the songs on the current Billboard pop chart will be remembered 44 years from today.  One thing no one can argue with, my friends, is that we had great music when we were growing up.  I'm sure May 26, 1966 was a pretty typical week – I bet I could pick any five weeks from 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, or 1970 at random and that the list of current hit songs from at least four out of the five would compare very favorably to this week's list. 

Take another look at the listing above – Supremes, Bob Dylan, Mamas and Papas,  Simon and Garfunkel, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Byrds, Yardbirds . . . and I left off the songs by Stevie Wonder, Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, Roy Orbison, the Animals, The Four Tops, etc.

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There are a few top-tier artists of that era who were missing from the list that week, however – most notably a band from Liverpool that wasn't bad.  

Why were the Beatles MIA the week of May 26, 1966?  The Beatles had a #1, #2, and #3 in 1966 – not exactly a bad year for them – but two of those had risen and then fallen off the charts by the time May 26 rolled around, and their best single of the year ("Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby") wasn't released until August.)

But the rest of the list is so strong, you hardly miss them – that's saying something, isn't it?

Click here to see a video of the Association performing "Along Comes Mary" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Click here to buy "Along Comes Mary" from Amazon.

Association – "Goodbye, Columbus" (1969)

You're gonna know that 

We've taken the world by surprise

To say that the 2016 election took us by surprise is the mother of all understatements.

I get blamed for a lot of sh*t that’s not my fault.  But you can’t blame me for anything relating to that election – because I didn’t vote!

Now wait just a minute before you get all righteously indignant about me not doing my civic duty.  I had a good excuse.

Voting in Maryland

I was planning to vote, but found out Monday evening that I had to fly to Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday to help out a client.

I know I could have voted early, but I had no reason to think that I wouldn’t in town on election day until it was too late.  Also, I disapprove of the whole notion of voting early.  As far as I'm concerned, people shouldn’t vote early, just like people shouldn’t have Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday or Sunday before Thanksgiving.

You can click here to read a Boston Globe article explaining why early voting is a bad idea.  (For one thing, turnout typically goes down significantly in states that allow early voting.)

My flight was at 9:10 am Tuesday morning.  I wanted to be at the airport by 8:00 AM at the latest, at it takes me a minimum of 45 minutes to drive there from my house.  The polls open at 7:00 AM in Maryland, so that left me precious little time to swing by my polling place (which is the neighborhood elementary school) and cast my vote before heading to the airport.  

I was reminded of the words of William Butler Yeats when I arrived at the school at 7:00 on the dot:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

There was nothing “mere” about the anarchy when I pulled up.  I was the 73rd voter in line, which was discouraging.  But I was prepared to wait it out . . . until it became apparent that the whole operation was completely FUBAR.  Nobody was actually voting – in fact, no one had even progressed as far as checking in with the election workers who hand out voting cards.  

The guy in charge (who has been the guy in charge as long as I can remember, despite the fact that it’s always chaotic when I show up to cast my ballot) was giving all his attention to a teenaged girl – presumably a student volunteer of some sort.  He seemed to be instructing her in her election-day duties.  

Surely an 8th-grade volunteer wouldn’t be given anything that important to do.  But the election supervisor was so focused on coaching her up that he was ignoring everything else that was happening . . . or NOT happening.

I gave it a few minutes.  But nothing changed.  The election judges sat quietly behind a folding table, avoiding eye contact with the 73 voters who were lined up.  Those 73 voters stood there docilely.  And the site supervisor continued to instruct the 8th-grade volunteer (who looked very sorry that she had volunteered to work at that polling place).  

A moment later, I was out the door and on my way to the airport, sans “I voted” sticker.  I was pissed, but only mildly.  Maryland is essentially a one-party state – every single race on the ballot was won by the Democrat – so voting there is a bit anticlimactic.  (This year, Clinton prevailed over Trump by 61% to 35%.  The state and local races were also one-sided.)

So whether I voted or didn’t vote had no impact on the outcome.  Nonetheless, not being able to vote kinda killed my groove.

When I landed in Columbus, the first order of business for me was to rent a car and drive to Dayton, which is about 75 miles away.

I was surprised by how many Trump-Pence yard signs I saw:

That’s not to say there weren’t Hillary signs as well:

The highlight of my time in Dayton was lunch at Skyline Chili.  The original Skyline Chili was opened by a Greek immigrant in Cincinnati in 1949.  Now the company has 152 locations in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida.

I had the Skyline "4-Way" (spaghetti with chili, beans, and shredded cheese):

Before

I didn't leave a single bean behind:

After

My next stop was Dayton Beer Company – or DBC – which is Dayton’s oldest microbrewery.  It was serving not only its own beers but also a couple of dozen beers from other craft breweries located in Ohio.

During happy hour, you could get a pint of any DBC offering for just three bucks, which made my decision easy.  I ordered a brown ale that was made with lactose (milk sugar) and espresso, which was delicious – it was smooth and creamy and rich in flavor, but not too heavy going down:

Later that evening, I was pleased to learn that the bar at the nondescript suburban hotel where the event I was attending took place had Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale on tap.  

That beer — which is brewed in Lexington, Kentucky – is aged in used bourbon barrels.  It’s smoky, well-balanced, a little sweet . . . altogether delicious, even to a non-bourbon drinker like me.

I wasn’t able to leave Dayton until a little after midnight.  Fortunately, I had satellite radio in my rental car, so I was able to listen to the audio portion of the CNN and Fox News election coverage.  (It was kind of annoying to have to listen to those networks on a car radio instead of being able to watch them on TV.  Various pundits kept pointing to election maps, or referring to on-screen numbers, but you can’t see maps or graphics on the radio.)

I couldn’t make myself go to bed before the Presidential race was called, so I was awake until shortly after 3:00 am.  It was much more entertaining than the SuperBowl – come on, admit it . . . WERE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Hampton Inn breakfast

After staying up that late, I felt like death warmed over when I woke up the next morning, but a free Hampton Inn breakfast – scrambled eggs, bacon, and a waffle from one of those weird little rotating waffle makers they only have at hotel breakfast rooms – restored me to life.

After breakfast, I had time for a chilly walk along the Olentangy River, which flows into the Scioto River in downtown Columbus.  It was once known as the Keenhongsheconsepung River:

The Olentangy River Greenway

After my morning constitutional, I took care of my business, packed, and headed to the Columbus airport.  On the way, I stopped at North High Brewing for a quick flight:

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Goodbye, Columbus, is the name of the novella that gave Philip Roth’s first book (which also included five short stories) its title.  (If you’re wondering how it is that Bob Dylan has won a Nobel Prize for Literature and Philip Roth hasn’t, I can’t help you – it’s mystery to me.)

That novella was made into a movie starring Richard Benjamin and Ali McGraw (in her first significant role) in 1969.

I had a soft spot for that movie, which I saw at my college when it was a couple of years after it was released.  One reviewer said that it was “both funnier and more perceptive” than The Graduate, and I would agree.  (The Graduate was highly overrated.  So was M*A*S*H.)

The movie soundtrack featured four songs by the Association.  None of them – included the title track, which we’re featuring today – could hold a candle to “Along Comes Mary.”

Here’s “Goodbye, Columbus”:

Click below to order the song from Amazon: