Saturday 9

It's Late (1959)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.


1) Ricky Nelson laments that he should have been home hours ago. When is the last time you stayed up later than you should have? What were you doing? I don't really have a bed time, as I operate by how I feel. And the most recent evening when I was awake after I had a hard time keeping my eyes open was this past Thursday. We had a condo board meeting with the realtor who wants to represent us when we put our building up for sale. It was an important topic, to be sure, and we met the only time was available to all of us. But as the meeting went on, it was hard for me to stay focused.

2) Compounding Ricky's problem is that he's nearly out of gas. How is your gas tank right now? When did you most recently fill 'er up? No car

3) It gets worse! He can't call home because he doesn't have a dime for the pay phone. Have you recently been in a situation where you've been glad you had your cell phone handy? This past week, my el train was stopped because of "an incident," and I was glad I could text the office and keep them apprised. It's ironic, though, if it wasn't for a cell phone, we wouldn't have been stopped. 

Three people -- two women (a mother and daughter) and a young man got on the train. The mother was already yelling when they got aboard. "You put your hands on her!" she kept screaming at the man. "She's no whore! You don't put your hands on her!" She kept yelling, and yelling, and yelling. At first I thought an assault of some sort had taken place on the platform and had been interrupted when the train arrived. Then it occurred to me -- if something serious had happened, either the women or the man would have gotten off at the next stop. But they didn't, yet she kept yelling ... and yelling ... and yelling.

Well, some well-meaning passenger filmed this with his/her cell phone and sent it to the transit authority. Who stopped the train. And sent Security back to assess the situation. Which meant we all had to sit there until they decided to call the police.

They decided not to, because it turns out the young man was her son. Once Security got involved, Mom quit yelling at him and turned on the guard, telling him to stay out of her family's business and leave her son the hell alone. (Of course, if she'd kept her voice down in the first place, none of this would have happened.)

4) The video for this song is from an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ozzie Nelson, Ricky's father, was in charge of the show and made the rules. One was that no one was allowed to smoke on the set ... except his wife, Harriet. Do you smoke? Have you ever lived with a smoker? My parents smoked. Three of my four grandparents smoked. It's as though my hair smelled bad until I was 18.

5) Life magazine coined the phrase "teen idol" to describe Ricky's popularity. According to Tiger Beat, today's teen idols include Johnny Orlando and Ruby Jay. Johnny was born in 2003, Ruby in 2004. Sam admits that before today, she had no idea who these young people are. How about you? No. And their names surprise me, because I thought Justin Beiber and BTS were today's teen dreams. I'm such an old fart!


6) While Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan have posthumously praised Ricky Nelson's music, 1950s music critics dismissed him as a lightweight. What's the last review you read? Was it written by a professional critic, or was it contributed by a consumer to a site like Amazon or Yelp? I read reviews all the time. Both professional and consumer. It's just being a good consumer. I'm amused when people complain that they didn't know this or that book or movie had "so much sex and violence!" Well, maybe you wouldn't be clutching your pearls right now in horror if you'd bother to check the reviews!

7) At the height of his popularity, Ricky tried his hand at movies, appearing in the western Rio Bravo with John Wayne. He turned 18 during the filming, and Wayne celebrated by playfully throwing Ricky into a sack of horse manure. Do you think pranks and practical jokes are funny? No. (And John Wayne sounds like a jerk.)

In costume for Rio Bravo. Who could pull a prank on this sweet little pup?

8) In 1959, when this song was popular, the St. Lawrence Seaway was completed. It connects Canada to our Great Lakes. Without looking it up, can you name all 5 Great Lakes? HOMES: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

9) Random question – You drive past a local motel and see the car of a very married friend right there in the lot. Would you ask her about it? Yes. I'd assume they had a busted HVAC system or some other homeowner emergency that precipitated moving out. My married friends seem happy and infidelity wouldn't have occured to me.