You make my heart sing
You make everything ... groovy
Wild thing
Wild thing, I think I love you
But I wanna know for sure
Come on and hold me tight
I love you
Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything ... groovy
Wild thing
---- instrumental ----
Wild thing, I think you move me
But I wanna know for sure
So c'mon and hold me tight
You move me
Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything ... groovy
Wild thing
Wild thing
C'mon, c'mon, wild thing
Shake it, shake it, wild thing (fade out)
(Written by Chip Taylor, sung by The Troggs
Sixties music had a little bit of everything, including ths classic song popularized by The Troggs in 1966, one of several bands to record it. I was never that fond of "Wild Thing," even as a 15-year-old teenager growing up in suburban New Orleans. I liked "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees better, as well as "A Beautiful Morning" by the Rascals (1968) and "Green Grass" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys (1965) which I listened to countless times.
The reason for this sudden nostalgia was a visit to the health food store the other night to have supper at the salad and hot bar. It's good stuff: free range chicken, veggie meatballs, sausage and salisbury steak, baked fish,fresh fruit and vegetables, homemade bread and baked goods that keep me coming back. This place is an oasis in a desert of fast food restaurants and conventional chain supermarkers near where I live. It's a gathering spot for the neo-hippie young folks in the area, the aging hippies, New Age counterculture and progressive types and, of course, thejust plain health-conscious among us who flock there and to the adjacent yoga and meditation center, the specialty shops and other restaurants that are not your regular mainstream fare.
The music which I end up listening to as I am eating unmistakeably caters to the Baby Boomers who are the store's bread and butter clientele, pardon the expression. As I ate my salad, fruit and vegetables, and drank organic tea the other night, I had to laugh as "Wild Thing" blared over the music system. Some nights you hear Celtic, other nights its International, progressive rock, or maybe even Bluegrass. It has to be lively though. You are not going to hear ambient or space music because that would put the shoppers to sleep.
Listening to "Wild Thing," I couldn't help but briefly contemplate a more innocent era, almost an interlude of calm in the Sixties after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and before the worst of the race riots in the aftermath of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
The Young Rascals' song "Groovin" was a No. 1 hit in 1967, and I think it marked the end of an era that encompassed the British Invasion of rock music groups from 1963-67. "Groovin" was a song of innocence. It was fun to listen to.
Sadly, what followed were years that shook the soul of America in the late Sixties. The King and Kennedy assassinations cast a pall over the country, and the Vietnam War was tearing it apart by class, a lost cause that was fought by the kids who were drafted and couldn't go to college.
Anoother war is tearing our country apart slowly now, one also fought half way around the world but this time there are no massive protests in the streets because there is no draft and rapidly depleted volunteer forces are fighting it, including many thousands of National Guard troops. There is nothing innocent about the new century since 9/11.
I remember so well this song from the Sixties.. I think its words can speak to a new generation.
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