Another Great Moment in the History of Background Music

I have written previously about the convenience store in my neighborhood, which tends to play 60s and 70s oldies on its piped-in music system, but which surprised me one fine morning by playing James Brown's "Sex Machine." Well, they've built a new location in my neighborhood, and when I stopped by the other day, I realized that I was hearing Willie Dixon's "I Ain't Superstitious," as recorded by the Jeff Beck Group--a seriously loud electric blues number featuring the young Rod Stewart on vocals. As the All Music Guide's Joe Viglione observes, the incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group that recorded "I Ain't Superstitious" was Led Zeppelin's biggest potential rival in the late 1960s. And it's unlikely that you'd hear them on your local good-times, great-oldies station, either. So it seems that somebody at the background-music company, perhaps the same somebody who programmed "Sex Machine," has either a sense of humor or a wicked blues/funk jones.

We can only hope.

Then I went back yesterday, and the place was rockin' with Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of "Little Sister." Pretty incongruous, really, given that the place was, at that moment, full of suburban moms stopping by for coffee. And even more so when you consider that a significant percentage of them probably popped out a Celine Dion CD before turning off the engine in the SUV. I'm sure that Celine's music has its purposes, but getting one's mojo workin' probably isn't high on the list.

I'd like to think my mojo is always workin', but I'm taking some time off to get it tuned up. Back Friday.