The year was 1969. I was in 7th grade at Horace Mann Junior High in Wausau. In fact, the school was located on the same site as the current WSAU Radio building on the corner of Scott and 6th in Downtown Wausau. Between shop class with Pinky Biwer and naked swim classes in that disgusting underground pool, we talked about the usual stuff...sports, girls and music..not necessarily in that order. But the big discussion in the fall and winter of 69 was not Woodstock or the Moon Landing but  was the story of Paul McCartney's "death". The rumor was widespread that McCartney had been killed in a car crash and replaced with a look-alike. We were instructed to scour the lyrics and album covers of our Beatle records to find the clues which the rest of the band had apparantley left for us. There were many believeable stories as pictures were studied and the records were even played backwards. That's where the title of todays blog comes from...if you played one of the songs backwards you could supposedly hear Lennon saying "turn me on deadman".  I mention this because today is the anniversary of the Northern Illinois student newspaper starting the rumor that "Paul is Dead" . It gave us welcome distraction from Florence Klipstein's English class and the sadism of our gym teachers and the fact the Packers were about to become crummy for a long time.

Happy Birthday to the Boss...Bruce Springsteen is 61.

Songs of The Day  (from my I-pod)

Goin Down To Laurel-Steve Forbert (1978) I was the music director at the UWSP college radio station in 1978 and dozens of new LPs came across my desk every week. I put "Alive On Arrival" by Forbert on the turntable and this song blasted out of the speakers. I was blown away by the strentgh of the lyrics...the guitar and harmonica playing...it was a brilliant debut and I became a fan to this day.

Godwhacker-Steely Dan (2003) what's the song about?...Who knows. Its enough to have had another Becker/Fagen collaboration to groove to.