Willie Nelson - Rainbow Connection

"Who said that every wish

Would be heard and answered

When wished on the morning star

Somebody thought of that

And someone believed it

Look what it's done so far"

For todays post I wanted to go over a few more songs featured in our wedding ceremony. In fact, these two were the beginning and ending tunes. First off is Rainbow Connection, better known as Kermit the Frog's song, but I wanted to share a different version today from one of my favorites. 

I was fortunate to be friends with an excellent guitar player (who was also my guitar teacher for a few years) that agreed as a wedding gift to play during the ceremony. This was perfect as we were getting married outside. We gave him the list of songs we wanted and off we went. Rainbow was played as the flower girls came down the isle and I approached the alter. If you're curious, the song my wife walked out to was "Morning Has Broken" and we lit our unity candle to the hymn, "Just As I Am" (which we ended up not being able to light. Advice to other's that wish to do this..light the candle a few times before the big day!) Luckily, this event hasn't had an impact on our happiness. Finally, after the vows we walked back down the aisle as Husband and Wife to "Pure Imagination" from a different Willie, Willy Wonka aka Gene Wilder.

Oh yeah, posted above is the front cover of our wedding program I discussed in the last post. Aren't we cute? Feel free to borrow our idea if you decide to create your own programs. Speaking of borrowing, I have to admit we borrowed something in our ceremony from the Dog The Bounty Hunter wedding special. Like Beth, my wife's father passed away before our wedding so she wasn't sure how the "walk down the isle tradition" was going to go. Well, Dog and Beth came to the rescue. Beth walked down the aisle half way and then Dog went and met her and finished walking her the rest of the way. Perfect! In fact, I even had this inspirational couple's big day memorialized on a coffee mug a few years back (RIP Beth)

Ok so for todays horror pick I'm going with 1982's, Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Figured it was a good one to highlight as the "new" Halloween movie was just released. Over the years I've gained more appreciation for this one.(Tom Atkins is amazing as the lead) This flick confused the fans when released because Micheal Myers isn't featured. In fact, it's a whole unrelated story.  Apparently, John Carpenter was hoping to get away from Mr. Myers and release a new scary Halloween story each year under the Halloween moniker. I'm sure his bank account is happy part 4 and beyond went back to Micheal. This one's a bit of a twisted tale about an evil Halloween mask maker who is determined to sell as many masks to kids as possible and once his commercial plays on Halloween night their faces will melt off. Yeah, it's a good one. Till next time.

rainbow connection ~ willie nelson

Gene Wilder - Pure Imagination

Halloween III 1982 - Trailer

Bob Dylan - Boots of Spanish Leather

 "Oh, but if I had the stars from the darkest night

And the diamonds from the deepest ocean

I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss

For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'"

For our wedding my wife and I decided to make our own programs. In the program we listed the order of procession and introduced the various members of the bridal party, parents, etc. We also sprinkled in some song lyrics. One of those lyrics is posted above from the great Bob Dylan. 

If you're familiar with the tune, things don't end well for the lovers in Bob's world. In under five minutes Bob brilliantly recounts the passionate beginning and "take each other for granted" ending of a love affair. During the honeymoon phase all they want is to spend time together and material things have no value. As time moves along, the couple starts to drift apart and instead of passing on stars and diamonds, it's time for a nice expensive gift. 

Fortunately in my situation I'm still living in the first half of Bob's story. The above words were true back in October 2011 and ten years later they remain the same. I'll try to post about the other songs from the program as well as the tunes we picked to use during the ceremony. Surprised it took so long for Bob to show up on this version of the blog but I'm sure he'll be back in the near future. 

The picture above features our wedding cake toppers. Happy to say the ghoulish bride and groom return to our dining room table every October when the other Halloween decorations appear. Our wedding date was close enough to Halloween so it felt nice to pay homage to the Samhain season. 

Todays horror movie is one I just watched this past summer. It features my favorite horror actor, Vincent Price. Price plays the role of Matthew Hopkins who was a "witch hunter" in the 1600's. While some of the story isn't historically accurate, Hopkins and his associates are thought to have been responsible for the execution of over 100 people.The townspeople would pay him and his crew to rid out the folks who were accused of associating with the devil. Thank goodness 400 years later people aren't still getting paid by the government to oppress women...whoops, forgot about Texas.  Till next time.

Bob Dylan - Boots of Spanish Leather (Official Audio)

Witchfinder General Trailer

Sugarloaf - Green Eyed Lady

                                                 "Green eyed lady feels like I never see

                                                    Setting suns and lonely lovers free"

Happy October everyone!  Octobers' always been my favorite month. The weather, the colors, Halloween and also my wedding anniversary. Speaking of which, hard to believe later this month will be ten years!. Blows my mind that the time between Tuesday and Friday afternoon sometimes seems like an eternity but the past 10 years have gone by in a flash. 

Had the pleasure of skipping town for a bit a few weeks back. Drove up to The Berkshire Mountains and stayed in Great Barrington and North Adams, Massachusetts. Also cruised over to eastern New York and Southern Vermont for day trips. The pic above is from the parking lot of Mass Mocha in North Adams.  Speaking of time gone by, this was our first visit back in over a decade. First explored this museum for the Solid Sound Festival back in 2010. The story about that weekend can be found in the first edition of my blog here. 

While in North Adams we stayed in a hotel called Tourists. One of the fun things about the motel was it had it's own radio station called...Tourists Radio. While the station mostly featured newer indy acts, a few classics were thrown in to mix things up. One of those songs was Crystal Blue Persuasion which just sounds like a tune you'd throw on while on vacation. After hearing this song it made me think of another record recorded a couple years later by Sugarloaf. Thought this song would be a good way to kick off the season as the lyrics are a bit witchy. Plus it has an organ solo which always gets a thumbs up from me. Also for some reason I feel like the theme to Night Court was influenced by this track? What do you think? I'll be posting some tunes that were part of our wedding as the month goes on, but will also continue the tradition of sharing some of my favorite horror flicks.

The first one this year is Don't Look Now from 1973. It's a story about love, grief and being a stranger in a strange land. As a bonus you get the obligatory Donald Sutherland nude butt scene. Happy Halloween!

Sugarloaf - Green-Eyed Lady (Original Song HQ) 1970

Night Court intro

Tommy James & The Shondells - Crystal Blue Persuasion Roulette (HQ)

Don't Look Now (1973) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers