"Vehicle" - Ides of March (video)

Maybe this seems mindless nostalgia and all we need now is a bubble machine ... but ... it is cool to see the old boys touring around still performing the song.

Ides of March was a trumpet-playin' band and Blood, Sweat & Tears then Chicago got the really big names for trumpet-playin' rock bands but Ides of March kicked it up pretty good in this one.

(Ed:  thanks for the history, Pops, is there a point?)

Yah, because I was driving out of the mountains in southern California after just crossing into the state and I was driving down to San Diego.  Probably even FM radio is nostalgia now but the other Pops out there will remember FM range is limited so you tune into the local rock FM whenever you approach a new city.

"Vehicle" was playing on the first station I found and, in those days, there was usually only one rock station in a city.

(Ed:  holy road maps, Triple A, is this some nostalgic travelogue and now you will start going on about how it was good to be alive in the sixties?)

Well, it was good to be alive in the sixties ... but ... some of it got a little weird.

(Ed:  ok, weird gets my interest a little bit)

You see, the reason "Vehicle" was playing on this San Diego radio station was it didn't seem to play anything else.  I heard it repeat and thought, hmmm, this is unusual.  When it repeated a third time, I got curious to discover how many times it would happen.

All the way out of the mountains into San Diego, "Vehicle" played over and over and over.  That was in 1969 and I still have no idea if there was any purpose to doing that but sometimes I amuse myself wondering.

This was the trip just before going into the Army in which I figured, well, you're completely screwed ... let's ride.  Except I didn't ride a motorcycle, I drove a Plymouth Valiant with a 225 c.i. slant-six motor.  This wasn't exactly Marlon Brando.  As I say, things could get a little weird back then.

This was the same trip when some freaks asked if I might want to live in a cave with them on a cliff overlooking the beach.  I declined so chalk up yet one more Biggest Mistake of My Life.

(Ed:  of course.  You were faced with the choice between living with some hippie freaks in a cave over the beach in San Diego where it never rains or going into the Army.  Naturally, you went into the Army.  What else would you do?)

Roger that, Cap'n.  What else would I do (larfs).