Saturday 9: It's Late

Saturday 9: It's Late (1959)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) Ricky Nelson laments that he should have been home hours ago. When is the last time you stayed up later than you should have? What were you doing?

A. I'm an old married woman. We go to bed at 10 p.m. at the latest. I can't remember when I was out late for anything other than a government meeting when I was working.

2) Compounding Ricky's problem is that he's nearly out of gas. How is your gas tank right now? When did you most recently fill 'er up?

A. Friday morning at 5:30 a.m. (The previous question asked me when I stayed out late. It didn't ask me what I was doing up early.)

3) It gets worse! He can't call home because he doesn't have a dime for the pay phone. Have you recently been in a situation where you've been glad you had your cell phone handy?

A. Not really. We had a humdinger of a severe thunderstorm the other day and my husband called me on my cell phone because he was on the other side of the farm and he could see that the lightning was popping around the house. I heard it hit close by several times.

4) The video for this song is from an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ozzie Nelson, Ricky's father, was in charge of the show and made the rules. One was that no one was allowed to smoke on the set ... except his wife, Harriet. Do you smoke? Have you ever lived with a smoker?

A. I think when I was quite young my father smoked, but he stopped. My grandfather smoked, though, and I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house. I do not smoke.

5) Life magazine coined the phrase "teen idol" to describe Ricky's popularity. According to Tiger Beat, today's teen idols include Johnny Orlando and Ruby Jay. Johnny was born in 2003, Ruby in 2004. Sam admits that before today, she had no idea who these young people are. How about you?

A. Not a clue. I didn't even know teen magazines were still a thing.

6) While Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan have posthumously praised Ricky Nelson's music, 1950s music critics dismissed him as a lightweight. What's the last review you read? Was it written by a professional critic, or was it contributed by a consumer to a site like Amazon or Yelp?

A. It was a movie review in the newspaper, so a professional critic.

7) At the height of his popularity, Ricky tried his hand at movies, appearing in the western Rio Bravo with John Wayne. He turned 18 during the filming, and Wayne celebrated by playfully throwing Ricky into a sack of horse manure. Do you think pranks and practical jokes are funny?

A. No, I do not.

8) In 1959, when this song was popular, the St. Lawrence Seaway was completed. It connects Canada to our Great Lakes. Without looking it up, can you name all 5 Great Lakes?

A. Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings in the rooms of her ice water mansions. Michigan sings like a young man's dreams, the islands and bays are for sportsmen. And farther below Lake Ontario takes in what Lake Eerie can send her. And the iron boats go as the mariners all know with the gales of November remembered. (That's how I remember the Great Lakes.)

9) Random question – You drive past a local motel and see the car of a very married friend right there in the lot. Would you ask her about it?

A. Only if my husband's truck was also in the parking lot.

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