Getting caught up on the Trip Tunes as I bide my time to get back on the water.

5. Just Like Paradise – David Lee Roth (1988)
Roth is certainly one of a kind and made the original version of Van Halen better than the Van Hagar version in my opinion. He later made a few splashes on the solo side with a variety of entertaining tunes, from remakes to originals. And “original” definitely describes Diamond Dave.

4. Electric Blue – Icehouse (1987)
By 1987, Top 40 radio had lost me as a dedicated listener. I was more in tune with another wave of hair bands and country music, quite a combination. Of course, there were still plenty of popular tunes that caught my ear, and I always liked this one. When researching the tune for this post, I learned something new. The co-writer on the tune was John Oates, of Hall & Oates fame.

3. Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac (1975)
As a kid, I had no idea there were multiple incarnations of Fleetwood Mac going back to the sixties. While I do enjoy songs from the early catalog, the 1975 and forward version was my Fleetwood Mac. Similarly, there are many great Stevie Nicks vocals, but this is my Stevie Nicks. The image, the sound, the persona, the whole works, what a way to introduce yourself as a member of the band.

2. Time – Pink Floyd (1973)
I love my tunes for lots of reasons and this one has many reasons for liking. Start with timely sound effects, move to an ominous intro, and then hit you upside the head with a vocal blast. But here’s what really hits home over the years, “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.” And those guys wrote this stuff before they reached thirty.

1. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon (1975)
As I was eight years old when I first heard this song, I had no clue about content or story, just knew it sounded cool. I am a big fan of unique words in lyrics, but it would be many years before I had any inkling that “misconstrued” was in there. I am also a fan of songs with names and this one makes for a great trivia question. What tune features the likes of Jack, Stan, Roy, Gus, and Lee? And while the song does not deliver precisely 50 ways as promised, who cares.

Next up, another report from Brent, this time covering an evening on the old home lake, Lake Storey. Talk to you later. Troy

Another fishing trip means another round of Trip Tunes.

5. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty – K.C. & The Sunshine Band (1976)
There are some entertaining interviews with KC (Harry Wayne Casey) out there where he reveals his formula. He mentions working in a record store in his younger days where he would encounter customers who did not know the name of a song they were seeking. They would hum or provide a few words to provide a clue. KC stated, “When I started writing songs, I wanted to make sure that they knew the title when they came in to buy the record.” Mission accomplished and I’ll leave it to you to count the “shakes.”

4. Slit Skirts – Pete Townshend (1982)
I dig The Who and several of Pete Townshend’s solo tunes, but I find him a rather unlikeable guy from his interviews and sound bites over the years. And his whole destroy your guitar stunt never sat well with me. I’d never throw my fishing pole in the lake after a day of pursuing my passion. At any rate, his mid-life crisis cut, with its tempo changes, is a winner as it’s like getting multiple songs in one.

3. Houses of the Holy – Led Zeppelin (1975)
So, in 1973, Led Zeppelin released an album entitled Houses of the Holy that did not contain the song Houses of the Holy. Nope, that track was on Physical Graffiti from 1975. There’s so much to like in so many Led Zeppelin songs. For this one, I’ll chose my favorite lines of the tune, “Let me wander in your garden, And the seeds of love I’ll sow.”

2. Man on the Silver Mountain – Rainbow (1975)
Once upon a time, I trudged through a college class called “Freshman Preceptorial,” dissecting a diverse collection of literature of various forms. Most everyone was better at “interpreting” and their versions of a deeper meaning were lost on me. And that’s Ronne James Dio for me. There’s plenty stuff going on in his catalog with religious themes, ancient mysticism, good vs. evil, and so on. I just feel like shaking my head, flashing some “devil horns,” and doing my best Dio impression belting out, “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

1. Evil Woman – Electric Light Orchestra (1975)
I’m a list guy as I steadily find myself making mental lists, frequently music related. In fact, that is what I am doing here with these Top 5 Trip Tunes. Were I to compile an official list of my favorite “Woman” songs of all-time, this one might top the list. And when considering a list of my favorite bands of all-time, ELO would rank high. They would also have another contender for my “Woman” list with Sweet Talkin’ Woman, which is kind of a more saccharine version of the Evil Woman character.

So far so good on keeping up with my Trip Tunes in 2025 and I must say that I am entertaining myself along the way. But back to the more direct fishing stuff with a Top 5 Update and another fishing report on the way. Talk to you later. Troy