YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 160 (Games People Play)
(Originally finalized on September 30, 2025)
Preface: Named for a song you've probably never heard, but that actually won a Grammy back in 1970, and covered (in instrumental form) by a guitarist you probably wouldn't recognize (but who played in Canned Heat), the subject of this week's theme is games - from the schoolyard to the barroom. Let's play!
Monday: Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic [Toys In The Attic, 1975]
Comments: As I mentioned last week, Aerosmith's third album was their commercial breakthrough. Although you may be less familiar with this title track (and opener!), the album also features the original version of Walk This Way, as well as Big Ten Inch Record, and Sweet Emotion - a few of Aerosmith's most enduring hits.
Tuesday: The Moody Blues - Ride My See-Saw [In Search Of The Lost Chord, 1968]
Comments: On The Moody Blues' third album - the second with their altered lineup, which had already received some success with the hit Nights In White Satin - the band was already locked into a proto-progressive groove. Written by the band's bass guitarist, this song - about weathering the ups and downs of life - was the album's lead single.
Wednesday: The Rolling Stones - Jigsaw Puzzle [Beggars Banquet, 1968]
Comments: I realized too late that the Stones have another song that would be appropriate for this theme, and a more popular one at that - Tumbling Dice. But since the genesis of this theme was at least partly inspired by this overlooked song, my hands were tied. Dig the Dylanesque lyrics, Brian Jones on the Mellotron, and Nicky Hopkins tickling those ivories.
Thursday: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - Lazy Poker Blues [Mr. Wonderful, 1968]
Comments: As if to spite the word "lazy" in its title, this is a rollicking "jump blues" from the original Fleetwood Mac's second album. The thrust of the song, if you will, relies on a pretty basic double entendre - a device that's rather popular when it comes to music, and which we'll see more of before the week is out.
Friday: AC/DC - The Jack [T.N.T., 1975]
Comments: Again we have a song that uses card games as a euphemism for sex - or, in this case, venereal disease. Though Bon Scott really takes it to another level. On the subject of poker cards, there are other songs out there - The Joker and Queen of Spades immediately come to mind - but I didn't want to focus too heavily on any one particular game this week.
Saturday: Stevie Ray Vaughan - Dirty Pool [Texas Flood, 1983]
Comments: Just as having "toys in the attic" can be used as a metaphor for insanity, to say that somebody is playing "dirty pool" has another meaning, too - that they're employing underhanded tactics to accomplish their objectives. Its use in this searing, slow blues from Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut album would seem to support the adage that love is war.
Sunday: Pink Floyd - Bike [The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, 1967]
Comments: This closing track from Pink Floyd's debut album demonstrates the idiosyncratic genius of founding member Syd Barrett, who was once the darling of the psychedelic movement in London's underground club scene. It also suggests, given the eventual deterioration of his condition, that Syd may have had a few toys in his attic...
Honorable Mention: Van Morrison - Domino [His Band And The Street Choir, 1970]
Comments: Allegedly a tribute to Fats Domino, the lyrics to this song are a little bit cryptic. Is it about ending a relationship? Or, as some have suggested, a thinly-veiled allusion to gay sex - "domino" being slang for someone who switches positions. "Don't wanna discuss it. ...You may get disgusted." Whatever it means, I doubt it has anything to do with playing dominoes.