This week at Glyn Wilton’s Mixed Music Bag,
he’s asking us to write about a song in which
the title or a line mentions the current month.
Here’s my final artist for July and his song.
Tag: COVID
Sticky Fingers
Written for Friday Fictioneers where our host Rochelle
asks us to use the photo below as inspiration
to write creatively in 100 words or less while
making every word count. This is my flash.
Rockin’ In Isolation
Today’s theme at Song Lyric Sunday is all about songs with the lyrics “eerie, ghost, haunting, paranormal or spooky” as suggested by Di of pensitivity101.
There are any number of songs along these lines .… the pop hit “Spooky” by the Classic IV, the golden standard “Ghost Of A Chance” by Ella Fitzgerald or the classic cowboy legend “Ghost Riders In The Sky” by Johnny Cash, just to name three. However, I remembered a song from just four years ago and had it simmering on the back burner.
Today seemed like the right day to serve it up.
Since 2017, the Rolling Stones had been on the No Filter Tour but had to stop touring in 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic. They remotely performed at Global Citizen’s Together At Home concert on April 18, 2020, helping raise money for healthcare workers and the World Health Organization during the crisis.
The Stones had been working on new music in the recording studio before lockdown and one particular track really resonated with what we were all living through. On April 23, 2020, the band released “Living In A Ghost Town” online as a single for digital download and streaming. It was based on 2019 recording sessions and finished remotely, making this their first original material since 2012 and their first release since the 2016 cover album Blue & Lonesome. The band fast-tracked releasing the song due to its relevance to social distancing. While the original storyline of the song was about being a ghost after a plague, Jagger changed some of the lyrics to refer to the pandemic.
On July 3, 2020, “Living In A Ghost Town” topped the German singles chart; this made the Rolling Stones the oldest artists ever to reach #1 on the chart! It also signified the longest gap between two #1 singles in Germany since “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” made it to the top slot in 1968. The song only reached #61 on the UK singles chart but fared much better in the US, peaking at #6 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 singles and #3 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative songs.
Recorded in Los Angeles, London and in isolation, my feature song today is “Living In A Ghost Town” by the Rolling Stones.
Lyrics
Whoa, oh
Whoa, oh
I’m the ghost
Living in a ghost town
I’m a ghost
Living in a ghost town
You can look for me
But I can’t be found
You can search for me
I had to go underground
Life was so beautiful
Then we all got locked down
Feel a like ghost
Living in a ghost town, yeah
Once this place was humming
And the air was full of drumming
The sound of cymbals crashing
Glasses were all smashing
Trumpets were all screaming
Saxophones were blaring
Nobody was caring if it’s day or night (Whoa, oh)
Whoa, oh
I’m a ghost
Living in a ghost town
I’m going nowhere
Shut up all alone
So much time to lose
Just staring at my phone
Every night I am dreaming
That you’ll come and creep in my bed
Please let this be over
Not stuck in a world without end
Whoa, oh
Whoa, oh
Whoa, oh
Whoa, oh
Preachers were all preaching
Charities beseeching
Politicians dealing
Thieves were happy stealing
Widows were all weeping
No beds for us to sleep in
Always had the feeling
It will all come tumbling down
I’m a ghost
Living in a ghost town
You can look for me
But I can’t be found
Whoa, oh
We’re all living in a ghost town (Whoa, oh)
Oh, living in a ghost town (Whoa, oh)
We were so beautiful (Whoa, oh)
I was your man about town (Whoa, oh)
Living in this ghost town (Whoa, oh)
Ain’t having any fun (Whoa, oh)
If I want a party (Whoa, oh)
It’s a party of one
Whoa, oh
Whoa, oh
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Michael Phillip Jagger/Keith Richards
Big thanks to Jim for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday and to Di for her excellent theme suggestion.
Thanks for stopping by. See you on the flip side. 😎
NAR©2024
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.
SOCIALLY DISTANCED
Memories of 2020 ~
A time not soon forgotten.
Both men lived in the same apartment building, one on the ground floor and the other, two flights up. They would see each other in passing, nodding ‘hello’ or muttering the occasional “How ya doing?” They were approximately the same age and had seen each other often but a friendship never developed.
Then the corona virus hit and everything changed.
They happened upon each other in a nearby park, masked up, walking their dogs. One had a golden retriever, the other a chocolate lab. They struck up a socially distanced conversation, at first talking about their dogs then, of course, the craziness of COVID.
They were both unemployed computer engineers, laid off because of company closures. Each one contemplated moving back in with their parents but that was impossible; neither one came from accepting or understanding families.
They started biking and jogging together, often running the six miles that made up the full loop around Central Park. As they talked they discovered they had much in common: their nonexistent love lives, their passion for chess, a fascination with micro-brewing and their dream of working from home as computer app designers. And how gut-wrenching it was coming out as gay. Bittersweet commentaries.
The next step was so natural: moving in together. They could share one apartment and save money, work on ideas for app design programs, dabble in a little home-made beer and totally, passionately, fiercely fall in love.
A new year, a new start. Love in the time of corona.
NAR © 2023
https://weeklyprompts.com/2023/11/01/weekly-prompts-wednesday-challenge-bittersweet/
This is “Under Pressure” by Queen.
THE PROMISE
Say, God! We your children, the citizens of the world, the people you created in your own image – Father, we have some questions for you.
Did you create this deadly, horrendous virus or did you give man the ability to cultivate it in a laboratory? Did you decide one day that you’ve had enough of this amoral world and it was time to start anew or perhaps not restart at all?
Or is it the handiwork of the devil? After all, how many times did he tempt your beloved Son during his 40 days in the desert? Turning stones into bread to relieve Jesus’ hunger while he fasted; daring Jesus to throw himself off a mountain by offering him dominion over all earthly kingdoms; demanding Jesus kneel before him, again for all the empires of the world. The temptations of hedonism, egoism and materialism – not unlike the world of 2020.
So what is this hideous evil we are facing now – this demon bug which does not discriminate between those people who are right and good and just or the ones who are evil and sadistic and selfish? It doesn’t care if the victim is a person of power and influence or a homeless man huddled in a cardboard box under a bridge.
Just recently people were going about their everyday lives – shopping in malls, attending concerts, catching a hockey game, dining out, getting married, hopping a plane to Rome. Kids went to school. People went to work. We went to church – your house where we gathered with our brothers and sisters, clasping hands in a sign of peace. Now your holy houses are closed.
Grandparents were welcoming their newborn grandchildren only to be snatched from their lives. Kids were gleeful to be home from school until they began missing their friends. They couldn’t have play dates or go to Cub Scouts or music lessons or the toy store. Jobs were lost, restaurants shut down, playgrounds deserted with only empty swings swaying in the wind.
Wearing rubber gloves while shopping became necessary, scared and wary eyes visible above our ubiquitous masks. People stowed bread and milk and eggs in their shopping bags and hoarded sanitizers and toilet paper. Some became greedy, leaving little on the shelves for others.
How many of your children will die? How many doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters and truckers put their lives on the line without a second thought, most unable to go home at night to their families? The elderly – confused, frightened and lonely in nursing homes – separated from their families because visits are forbidden. The women in the throes of childbirth afraid to go to the hospital, perhaps not even allowed to go to the hospital.
We have new words and phrases in our vocabulary – self-isolation, flatten the curve, shelter in place, social-distancing. Yet there are comforting and familiar words such as hope, peace, love, family, faith and health. Those are the words we cling to every day. Those are the words that are stronger than anxiety, depression, helplessness, solitude and fear.
Eons ago you destroyed the earth by water. Only eight righteous people and every kind of animal were spared. You made this promise: “Never again will I curse the earth; neither will I again smite every thing living, as I have done”.
No, Father! We your children refuse to believe that you have abandoned us. We know you are a loving and compassionate God. You will end this vile curse, freeing us to once again walk arm in arm, our faces basking in the glow of your never-ending love.
NAR © 2020
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