Leaps

- The Box Tops -

I thought I better do some work today, so I took some photos of a 1970 South Plains College yearbook to sell on ebay.

There was a band, The Box Tops, mentioned in it. That school year, they had played in "The Dome", a sports facility in Levelland, Texas.

I wondered who they were, thinking they were some local band of the time.

Information online said that they sang the song "The Letter". Not that song, I thought. Not the one that the words start playing in my mind without me having to recall them: Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane... 

It is that song. I thought The Animals or someone like that had sang it. My mind was blown.

Then I wondered who wrote that song. A guy named Wayne Carson, who went on to write so many songs that you can't not know one. Always On My Mind, Satin Sheets, and on and on, performed by famous singers like Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck and Waylon Jennings. He also wrote a few more of The Box Tops top hits. Mind blown, again.

Next I wanted to know who sang the song that started all this unraveling. It was Alex Chilton, a sixteen-year-old boy from Tennessee.Wait, what?! He also wrote In the Street, covered by Cheap Trick, which was used as the theme for That 70's Show? Good grief, the leaping around my mind was having to do was staggering. Wait, though, there was one more great jump to make.

Alex Chilton was the singer for Big Star. He wrote Thirteen, one of the sweetest songs I've ever heard. I was having cataclysms in my mind. I thought these were contemporary songs, but they're from the '70's! I mean, Thirteen was on the Gilmore Girls soundtrack! It played in the background while Rory and Dean were courting.

The older I get, the more I'm amazed at what I don't know. It's very exciting, discovering new old things. Just dazzling. 

So, wow, The Box Tops, Wayne Carson, Alex Chilton, That 70's Show, Gilmore Girls, all connected. Now, I wonder where Kevin Bacon fits into all of this?