Because I grew up a couple of miles from Ventura Highway. Before it became known as Ventura Blvd. Because it was how you got from L.A. to Ventura.
Because I've travelled it a good number of times, and it brings nothing but fantastic memories. (As long as we're not talking about the transit disasterpiece gridlock-stricken abortion known as the Ventura Freeway that runs through L.A. County.)
Because the guitar hook is to die for, and the musicianship exquisite throughout.
Because "I've been hit by purple rain" decades before TAFKAP bootlegged it into a mediocre song and movie.
Because it's the only song not a Roger Corman cinematic nightmare that could get away with "alligator lizards in the air".
3 comments:
Saw them before the big fame in the NCO club in Berlin. Think they were making the rounds of some of the base clubs, back in the day when the AF would fly in lobsters from Maine for surf & turf night, and Masters-at-Arms would throw out officers trying to get in (but allow their dates to stay if they wanted).
Wasn't especially my cup of tea at the time but found their harmonies were already very tight - one of those things that doesn't come along but every so often. Goofy lyrics but fun to listen to. Thanks for that one.
Thanks for this. Given my tendency for mondegreens ('aint no woman like the one-eyed gott...'), I always wondered if I was the only one who heard 'alligator lizards in the air.'
And, I always wondered if the purple rain idea was later stolen by TAFKAP.
I enjoy the Sunday music a lot, thanks for sharing. Jennifer
So Aesop would remember Ventura - Santa Barbara coast before they built Hwy 1 into the sea. I'm talking Stanley's Diner for an excellent steak (and a superb surf spot).
On the hill overlooking Ventura - the hill with two or three oaks at the summit - many of the family of my ex-outlaws are buried there. Last I knew, they still hadn't built houses up there.
I saw America twice in the late 70s. They are at the top of the list of concerts I had attended.
Rick
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