July 7th is Rock and Roll Day so I decided to use this as my theme for Poetic Sundays. People love rock music for many reasons, some of the main ones being the high energy and high emotional resonance of the songs. Today, I briefly look at the why and also share a poetic rock and roll playlist.

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Reasons People Love to Rock and Roll to Rock Music!

Every time we visit San Luis Obispo (like we did this past week), we invariably stop at Boo Boo Records. And I pick a few random used records (vinyl) and CDs from the sales sections. This allows me to get many different artists each time with just a little spending. While I know the popular artists/albums/songs across different musical genres, I use this chance to discover the lesser known gems.

We always spend a couple of hours flipping through vinyls and CDs and cassettes, absorbing the atmosphere. The store was a sanctuary, a cool refuge from the summer heat outside. We picked up a few different albums, one for each of us. As we headed back home, the car filled with the music from the CDs we had picked and the anticipaton of listening the the vinyls when we got home on our Victrola.

And yes, when we got back home, where the temperatures were a scorcher, we put the vinyls and spent the evening listening to these treasures. Each song was a journey, a story, a connection to a different era.

What I have discovered in these trips to this and other records stores is that rock music is a much loved genre, maybe the one with the most passionate fans. Here are some reasons I found:

• The energy and spirit in this musical genre.
• Expressive and passionate instrumentation: The artists play the instruments with passion and the music itself allows them to play with unique expression and lots of emotion.
• Sense of freedom: The rebellious nature of rock and roll resonates with a desire for freedom and self-expression.
• The songs: The lyrics are often poetic and resonate with people emotionally. They are motivating and rich.
• Many sub-genres that add to the richness of this music
• Communal Experience: Whether at live concerts or with friends, listening to rock and roll is a thrilling, shared experience.

Poetic Sundays: A Must-Listen Literary Rock and Roll Playlist

Here is a list of songs that should be on your literary rock and roll playlist. The literary inspiration follows the name of the song /artist below

1. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen – The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson (poem)
2. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by The Police – Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov (fiction)
3. “Dover Beach” by The Bangles – Dover Beach by Mathew Arnold (poem)
4. “Eldorado” by Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado Edgar Allen Poe (poem)
5. “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica – For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (fiction)
6. “Golden Hair” by Syd Barrett – Lean Out of the Window by James Joyce (poem)
7. “Golden Slumbers” by The Beatles – Cradle Song by Thomas Dekker (poem)
8. “How Beautiful You Are” by The Cure – The Eyes of the Poor by Charles Baudelaire (prose-poem)
9. “Maggie’s Farm” by Bob Dylan – Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (poem)
10. “Misty Mountain Hop” by Led Zeppelin – The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (fiction)
11. “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin – The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (fiction)
12. “Shadows And Tall Trees” by U2 – Lord of the Flies by William Golding (fiction)
13. “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones – The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (fiction)
14. “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” by The Alan Parsons Project – Tales by Edgar Allen Poe (short stories/poems)
15. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (fiction)
16. “The Lake Isle Of Innisfree” by The Waterboys – The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats (poem)
17. “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (fiction)
18. “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (fiction)
19. “Xanadu” by Rush – Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poem)

You can listen to all the songs here (put together in a playlist for your convenience!)

sources: ColoradoSound/CMF

Recently

On My Blog and Home Front

I grew older this past week but not sure about the wiser part. And we took a trip to my son’s apartment in beautiful San Luis Obispo (summer quarter for him) for a couple of days. Thankfully, it was way less of a scorcher there than here in the Bay Area for those two days so we escaped the heat unintentionally for those two days. Now we are back braving the heat. And while my son came with us to spend another day here with us, he is on his way back to the SLO-life now!

• From Book Awards to More Awards and Back Again
• Embracing the Sunshine: Yellow Books and More I Love
• FunTime: Move Like Me 10 Days in the USA
• Sunday Scribblings #192: Seeing Life in Glimmers of Gold

Upcoming

On My Blog and Home Front

Hopefully will post everyday this coming week at least 🙂 And tend to the poor plants in my backyard garden. We have tried to protect them with a makeshift shade (a beach umbrella) but need to do better by them. And also install some light poles that I ordered.

This Week’s Celebrations

The Literary and Close-to-it Celebrations

• Literary Birthdays this week: Erin Morgenstern and Jean de la Fontaine on the 8th; Dean Koontz and Barbara Cartland’s birthdays on the 9th of July; Alice Munro, Karen Russell, Marcel Proust, and Seth Godin on the 10th; followed by Amitav Ghosh, E. B. White, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Min Jin Lee on the 11th; the 12th celebrates Henry David Thoreau and Pablo Neruda; while David Storey and Jane Hamilton’s birthdays are on the 13th; ending the week with Brian Selznick and Irving Stone on the 14th
• The 10th is National Clerihew Day as well as International Town Criers Day. Check out my post on the Clerihew here

Foodie Celebrations

• Start the week with deliciousness as it is National Chocolate with Almonds Day, National Blueberry Day, National Freezer Pop Day, and National Ice Cream Sundae Day on the 8th of July
• Followed by National Sugar Cookie Day on the 9th
• Then it is National Piña Colada Day on the 10th
• Next up is National Blueberry Muffin Day, National Rainier Cherry Day, and National Mojito Day on the 11th. 
• July 12th is National Pecan Pie Day
• While it is National French Fry Day on the 13th
• Followed by National Mac and Cheese Day on the 14th of July

Other Celebrations

• July 8th asks you to bring your inner child out with Be a Kid Again Day
• Then it is Barn Day and Call of the Horizon Day on July 9th
• The 10th is National Kitten Day, so share those cute kitten videos today to your heart’s content!
• It is Cheer Up the Lonely Day on the 11th so do your best to reach out to someone who needs a hello.
• The 12th is Etch A Sketch Day, New Conversations Day, and Paper Bag Day
• And then it is Fool’s Paradise Day on the 13th as well as International Rock Day and National Barbershop Music Appreciation Day
• July 14th is National Tape Measure Day

Related Reads and More

Book Feature: Rock and Rhyme

Thank you to Michelle Thibeault for reaching out to me to read and feature this book; and for her immense patience as I dealt with life over the past few months. Yes, she sent me this adorable, very well-done book ages ago but I could not post anything about it.

Today seemed the ideal day to feature it, being Rock and Roll Day and while I loved every part of it, highlighting The Beatles here for July 7th also happens to be Ringo Starr’s birthday!

The interactive aspects of this book are delightful and varied making it more fun for the young readers, and parents will be happy to know that the book is sturdy and bound to withstand many interactions with it. Plus, the artwork is so very cute and innovative as well as a visual recognizable representation of the portrayed artists. The accompanying rhyming text is simple and to the point and highlights the artists well.

Get this book today for your loved ones who enjoy music of any sort, and especially the ones who love rock and roll.

Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, this was it for this post. As always, appreciate and totally welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions on these scribblings on Sunday! And which of these days in this wonderful week do you plan to celebrate?

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon. And 👍🏻, also to the Ultimate Blogging Challenge throughout this month.