It’s Sunday. No politics for me today.

A long time ago, i.e. before Covid, I could get my dose of rock’n’roll trivia listening to and participating in the “Three for Free” audio quiz from Lin Brehmer and Mary Dixon in the pre-dawn hours on WXRT. Those challenges are gone, with Mary now on WBEZ, and our best friend in the world Lin spinning the disks on 93.1 at a more civilized midday time.  But my rock’n’roll mind never rests. As you will see…

After breakfast this morning (but well before my weekly dose of Meet the Press) you would have found me in the basement exercise room, grinding away on the elliptical. As per my usual routine, I was plugged into the Pandora app, listening to my self-curated radio station.  Decades features rock bands from the ’60s right on to today–from the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” to Bruce Springsteen’s brand-new “Letter to You,” with lots of Floyd (Pink), Dan (Steely), and Straits (Dire) in between.

I warmed up with U2’s “The Sweetest Thing” and then got my heart pumping with “Layla” by Clapton’s Derek and the Dominoes, followed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with  “Learning to Fly.” “That’s cool,” I recognized. “Those last two songs have something unusual in common.”

Letting my mind roam as I continued my workout, I came up with two more songs with the same unique characteristic. One of those two is “Closer to Home (I’m Your Captain)” by the Michigandering Grand Funk Railroad. The other…well if I told you the other this question would be much too easy!

So now it’s your turn. What do “Layla,” “Learning to Fly,” and “Closer to Home” have in common? I know “Layla” and “Closer to Home” both are two-part songs, but “Fly” doesn’t fit into that pattern.  And it doesn’t have to do with how many people are in the band, or who they are. But there is something that ties these 3 songs together.

If you know, send me a note at les.raff@post.com. You can leave a comment, but don’t give away the answer. And enjoy your Sunday.

---

Vote November 3rd.

---

 

Like what you read here? Add your name to our subscription list below. No spam, I promise!
___

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

//s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.mailchimp.com/js/mc-validate.js(function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]=’EMAIL’;ftypes[0]=’email’;fnames[1]=’FNAME’;ftypes[1]=’text’;fnames[2]=’LNAME’;ftypes[2]=’text’;}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true);

———————————–