As I’ve heard quoted by a cool band… “This isn’t a discotheque darling, this is the theater to the stars.” That’s the first thing I think of whenever I think of the 70’s, I don’t know why. If you can name the band who used that sound byte to open up one of their songs, I’ll immortalize you right here. As clue, they’ve been featured on the blog. I don’t know if the sound byte comes from a movie, but if it does please enlighten me.
The concept of time travel has probably been dreamed about since, well, the beginning of time. I can imagine cavemen sitting around and thinking what it would be like to have an easier life where food came to him and he could get the latest weather updates on his hip. That way he’d know when he goes out for a walk draggin his girl behind him by the hair, whether or not he’d need to bring his boots or not. How’s that for a stereotype?
I’ve mused about time travel in a song myself. It’s blatantly obvious by the title, Time Machine. H.G. Wells wrote an epic story about it. Other musicians like Joe Satriani have written songs about it as well. Movies of all sorts like Back To The Future (I, II, III), Time Cop, even Superman. How often do you muse about visiting the future or even the distant past?
While Dean’s song is not likely about Time Travel, the lyrics are ambiguous enough that I could postulate Slide Riding is about leaping through time. Heck a TV show known as Quantum Leap was about that, so was Sliders. Hmmm… Is mankind obsessed with time travel? Maybe so. Of course the initial reason I mentioned time travel is because Dean’s song has that 70’s vibe. Especially kicking off with that B3 organ. While I wouldn’t know my 70’s from a hole in the wall, I would expect to this be the type of sound that occurred at Woodstock.
The thing I find myself doing as I listen to the song is bouncing my head back and forth while tapping my foot at the same time. It’s got a great funky bounce. (ha ha, I almost wrote fucky [is that even a word?] bounce – it’s got that too). The whole groove has a tight unit feel without being constricted which is cool. You need to have stuff that can be cranked up with top down and the wind blowing through your hair as you press the gas pedal to the floor heading to a party up the coast. This is that song. Get it now before your next party.
Oh, and can anyone tell me exactly what a Slide Rider is?