This blog entry starts with the end of a brief conversation in Facebook Messenger between a semi-new friend named Mike, whom I met through a longtime friend named Crews but hadn’t talked with much, which led to an even newer friendship with someone named Peggy, and a guest appearance by a mutual friend of Crews’s and mine named Laurianne.
The timestamps are important to the story’s coincidentiality (new word), so I include the significant ones.
MIKE (JUL 30, 2018 - 2:54 AM):Heading towards the Pacific Northwest but not sure I'll be going into Canada this time around.
ME (taking a break from yard work, catching up on Messenger on my phone in my shed)
(JUL 30, 4:07 PM): Well, safe, uneventful travels to ya!
MIKE: (5:36 PM): Safe yea, but I want at least some events. We'll get a beer maybe next year as I travel up to Alaska.
ME (5:38 PM): Good events, hopefully. No flat tires, empty fuel tanks, or psycho drivers nearby. Alaska? Whereabouts? I lived there most of the 90s
My community is on the highway to Alaska. Various friends traveling from there to the lower 48 or back have stopped in
MIKE (5:38 PM): I dunno... Anywhere I guess. Anchorage seems like a destination for starters. It's what's between the cities though that make the trip.
I lived in Toronto in the 90's
ME (5:40 PM): True. The journey is a huge part of the destination.
Well, I've never been to Anchorage... (but I kinda like the music). :)
Toronto either.
(Here I insert a link for the Three Dog Night song “Never Been To Spain”)
MIKE: (5:40 PM): Well, I've never been to Spain. They say the ladies are insane there.
Crews
ME (5:44 PM): Lol! Love that song
Crews?
MIKE (5:46 PM): I just commented on his post about this song less than 5 minutes before you said it. So I assumed you saw that.
ME (5:48 PM): No, I had no idea. Will go look
I went to look on Crews’s wall, and the conversation continued over there as follows:
Comments on Crews's post:
July 30, 2018 - 4:37 PM - Crews wrote:
This song came to mind out of nowhere. *Never Been to Spain* — Three Dog Night
It is one of those, “How the heck did we get here?” songs.
I mean, it starts a certain way, in this case, a single, pensive voice and a guitar; but by the end, that voice is yelling, drums are banging, a full band is jamming, a choir is singing, and the pensive mood has turned into downright rowdy.
I have been to parties like that. Neat when it happens in a song.
I wonder what songwriters are thinking. I think of it as “Filling in the silent spaces.”
Do they perceive music as an entire spectrum on a x-y diagram, and look at it and go, “I can add a choir over here, percussion down here, oh, and now I can add some crazy bass-line in this corner?”
I suppose the first time I noticed it was as a child hearing the *Orange Blossom Special* played on a fiddle. First, the distant train whistle by the lone and slow fiddle, then, joined by a snare, guitars, banjos, percussion, and more by the time that train rumbles by.
Same thing in these songs I heard today:
*Six Days on the Road* — Sawyer Brown
*I’d Love to Change the World* — Ten Years After (passing through Boogie-woogie on the way to *La Marseillaise!* Good grief!)
Except for the *Never Been to Spain,* the other examples make use of the building sound just as a story builds to a climax. But the lyrics of *Spain* do not tell such a story.
Strange song.
(Here he posted a link to the song.)
Mike (Jul 30, 5:35 PM): What does it matter?
Crews (Jul 30, 5:51 PM): Exactly
Me (Taking a break while cooking dinner, looking at Facebook)
(Jul 30, 5:51 PM): Wow, Crews, this is weird. I was having a conversation with Mike a few moments ago and this song worked its way into the words. Timing.
Crews: “Must be real it. Feels so good.”
Mike (asking me): Did you tell Crews at some point you liked the the tune or is it a real coincidence? I haven't even heard the song for decades and all the sudden two people bring it up at the same time.
Me: I have posted the song on my wall, several months ago, and we were interacting a bit about it, but not recently.
Crews: Real coincidence. Haven’t mentioned it to anyone, nor had it mentioned to me.
I saw the word, “Spain” in some political post from an unrelated friend yesterday, and the song came to mind then.
Today, I thought about it again and searched my library for it. Didn’t have it.
Pulled it up on YouTube to make sure the 3DN version was my favorite. It was, and downloaded from iTunes.
Only then did I think about how it was one of those songs that just kept adding *voices* as it went along until there was no room for more music, and how difficult I imagine writing such music must be.
And then, I wrote and posted.
Mike: Well that was pretty cool then. What are the odds?
Crews: Mike, what are the odds with Christine involved? About 50/50. I think we are connected even though we never actually met.
Me: I'm fully expecting Laurianne to next be strangely involved in these shenanigans.
Mike: Crews, yea but the odds of mentioning and elaborating on this long forgotten song are slim.
Me: I feel this whole thing needs to become a blog post.
I go look up info on Three Dog Night having a concert anywhere nearby and I find a link for them planning a show at the upcoming Alaska State Fair, which I posted here:
http://www.alaskastatefair.org/site/events/three-dog-night/
My comment with the above link: That's not far away. Realistically, I don't think I could go, but with this craziness, anything's possible.
Crews: Mike, yep. Can’t refuse it.
Me: You guys are making me literally lol here!
Crews: Christine, I was just thinking the same thing [about Laurianne].
She’ll probably post as soon as she gets back from the Waylon Jennings concert she is at.
(Then Crews included a link for Waylon’s version of Never Been To Spain.)
Me: I can tell my brother by the flowers in his eyes
On the road to Shambala...
Ah, hoooo... yeah yeah yeah ...
Oops, wrong 3DN song!
Me: I wish I could have seen Waylon before he died.
I have his version of that song on my phone, too.
Me: I've never been to Shambala, but...
What does it matter?
Peggy (a friend of Crews and of Mike, who sent me a friend request during this conversation): Got tickets to see them at Alaska State Fair. I’ll think of you when they play it
Me: Well, things keep getting weirder. Mike and I started talking about that song while on the topic of Alaska.
Me: Crews, Mike, and I should all go to the show in Alaska.
Mike: I know right... A coincidence inside a coincidence.
Peggy: See ya there?
Crews: And this is how the story began in which Peggy, Mike, Christine, and Crews all ended up meeting!
Can’t wait to see how it ends!
Peggy: I would love that!
Crews: Peggy, me too.
Me: Great post, by the way. Another one for the Collection of Crews's Muses you should compile.
Me: Or wait... is that the wrong word? "Musings", really, but Crews's Muses rhymes.
Mike: Crews muses... Lol
Laurianne (aka “Munchkin”) Jul 31, 3:31 AM: "I was headed to Las Vegas...and I drove through fycking Needles.....
...I done drove through Oklahoma, but I really don't remember....
I was born in South Dee-troi-oit, but had to leave due to the riots....could have stayed but I'd have died there, cannot be white and survive there.
Been a driver of the highways....been across a thousand byways....garnered mem'ries that still a-ma-aze, earned the right to live life my way...."
Yup. With that addition, it is the story of my life
Me (Jul 31, 8:26 AM): Munch, I laughed out loud at your first line! Love your additions to the song. :D
**********
A few weeks later, after talking about other things here and there, but not the Three Dog Night stuff, Mike posts something on his wall and it starts up again. But look what else happens with Peggy in the italicized section!
Mike’s timeline post (Aug 28, 7:23 PM): Not much Wi-Fi or phone signal in the places I've been lately, but I got signal now.Comments on Mike's post:
So how 'bout the latest with all the politics, religion, and local sports team stuff... huh?
Peggy (Aug 28, 6:38 PM): Kinda nuts out there isn’t it?
Mike: Kinda whacky everywhere..lol
Me (Aug 28, 7:10 PM): I don't follow the latest anything, but I do still want to make a blog post out of that hilarious Three Dog Night fiasco that went on between you, Crews, and me. And I think Peggy, too. See, I'm already forgetting details. Been too busy.
(Here, I got a notification, at 7:12 PM, that Peggy, who lives in Alaska, had tagged me in a link she’d just uploaded for some footage she recorded a few days earlier at the Alaska State Fair, where she got to attend the Three Dog Night concert.)
Peggy said in that post: “Crews, Mike, and Christine [tagged us all]. Weren’t we just talking about this? LOL!”
I replied to her post: “I just brought it up again on Mike's wall a few minutes ago.
When is the Alaska State Fair that they are due to play at?”
Peggy replied: This is from their Sunday concert at the fair.
Mike commented: What the?....
Peggy answered Mike with: “I know right?” (and an emoji laughing hard with tears)
Crews came along a few hours later and added: “Can’t refuse it!”
And now back to Mike’s wall, for the rest of the comments.
Peggy (to me, at 7:14 PM): Did you see the video I just tagged you in ?
Me (7:16 PM): Yes, just now. Did you tag me in it AFTER you saw my comment here??
Peggy: No. I think we posted at the same time. Lol! Pretty interesting
Peggy: Two minutes apart and it took about two minutes to upload
Peggy: I couldn’t believe you hadn’t seen the video before you said that. 😳
Me: Well, that'll need to be included in the blog post, too. How weird!
Me: It's been at least a few weeks since I've talked about this with any of you guys, and then all of a sudden you and I bring it up at the same time.
Craziness. :D
Mike: What's with that 3 dog night tune having some kinda magic mojo or something?
Peggy: Lol! Maybe. Weren’t you in that conversation we had about a month ago? It’s when I met Christine.
Mike: Yea, Crews started it and it went round & round. Some kinda cosmic sh*t for a song I haven't even heard for decades.
Peggy: Love that stuff.
**********
Remember Mike asked whether Crews and I had talked about this song he'd not heard in decades? Well, I post the following conversation to answer that.
Timeline post by me, Mar 27, 2018 - 10:16 PM:Comments:
And now it is a Three Dog Night kind of night. This song has been stuck in my head for the past few days. Earworm much? Not a bad one to have, mind you:
Me: I wonder if this song was the inspiration behind the lyrics in "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything".
Crews: Wonderful song, but ends too soon. They seem to be getting all “jammy” at the end, but we don’t get hear where it went.
Me: I'll have to listen to find out if it is a different version than what I have on my phone. Did it cut off?
Crews: No. that is how I remember it ending— with a fade as the musicians begin to jam.
Crews: There is answer to “What does it matter?”
You see, Oklahoma borders Texas on the north, but Arizona is separated from Heaven by a whole state— New Mexico.
Me: I'll have to visit this place called Texas someday. You've painted it out to be so great.
**********
And for whatever it's worth, in case you didn't know what the band's name "Three Dog Night" meant, it is an old-fashioned expression, before the days of in-house heating, to indicate how cold a night is by how many dogs you bring to bed. If you have to snuggle up with three dogs in order to keep warm, it's pretty darn cold.
Now go listen to some more Three Dog Night songs. There are a lot of other good ones besides this one, which might get stuck in your head now that I've brought it up.
