Ride of the Bumblebee

Ah, yes, the flight of the bumblebee.  The bumbling, too-big-for-their-own-good insects can be found the world over.  The orchestral classic was penned in 1900 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.  In the story the Tsar’s son, missing his long lost father, transforms into a bumblebee (with the help of a mystical swan with magical powers) in order to fly in an effort to find the man.  At full steam, a worker bumblebee can reach speeds of 10 miles per hour.  That doesn’t sound like too great of a speed until that bee meets the eyeball of a bike rider moving at 20 mph.  And, like Sir Isaac Newton taught us; when two opposing forces meet, bad things can happen.  Old Newton knew a bit about this stuff.  So much so that today a unit of force is known as a Newton.  The other day the SBT noticed a rider moving along without eye protection and we thought of Sir Isaac.

The world needs bumblebees, they are one of the foremost pollinators of plants on earth.  Their big, hairy bodies absorb copious amounts of pollen and with all of the traveling they do to working for their queen they make plenty of stops in a given day.  And they don’t even have to stop to pollinate.  Bumblebees vibrate in flight and those vibrations shake off the collected pollen onto whatever is nearby.  So, the valuable bee is good for us humans.  We ride in their world.  The best way to do it is with eye protection.  

The Prevent Blindness Society of America reports that close to 1,000,000 people will sustain an eye injury at work or at home this year.  Another 40,000 people will injure one or both eyes playing sports.  The number one eye injury reported from a sporting activity is a fish hook cast by an errant angler (paintball is second and closing in fast).  The Society notes that 90% of all eye injuries are preventable.  It makes sense to ride with eye protection.  Safety experts recommend glasses with the following requirements:

High mass impact.  In order to test impact “a one-inch diameter steel projectile weighing 17.6 ounces is dropped through a tube from a height of 50 inches onto a safety lens mounted in a frame. To pass, the frame must fully retain the lens, and no piece can become detached from the inner surface of the frame component that holds the lenses.”  That is enough to fend off a bumblebee or any insect, even most road debris. 

High velocity impact. This test “involves shooting a quarter-inch steel ball at the lens and frame at a velocity of 150 feet per second from a distance of just under 10 inches. The pass criteria are the same as for the high mass impact tests.”  Again, nothing you will encounter on your bike will get past that.

Also, consider purchasing an elastic band that attaches to the back of your temples to keep your safety glasses securely on your head during active sports.  On a bike it is easy to bounce over a road anomaly and lose your glasses.  

And last, you will want to eliminate glare.  Not having to squint will keep your eyes fresh and will fend off fatigue.  Photochromic lenses change for outdoor lighting conditions. An eye care professional can advise you as to which tints are best for cycling.  We want you to have a good ride, and a safe ride.  

The SBT is working on a product review of the best  glasses at this moment and will post it to our website soon.  In the mean time please visit www.stickybottleteam.net for our current Product and Bicycle Reviews.  

The 10 best "Story Songs" in Rock n Roll

It’s all about sex, drugs and rock n roll.  Music that is.  Rock music since time immemorial has had as its central theme the trifecta of sex, drugs and rock n roll.   Nearly every song in the vast rock music catalog deals with one of the three subjects.  Sometimes, even when we think it is a love song, it isn’t.  Take for example the Rolling Stones classic “Angie.”  Speculation for years was that the tune was inspired by Angie Dickinson, or David Bowie’s wife Angela, or a lady by the same name the band met backstage.   Angie is not a woman, Angie is heroin and the song is about Keith Richards’ trying to kick the horse habit.  But every once in a while a rock song comes along that tells a great a story--and yes one or all three of the themes inter-mingles making these classic story songs legendary.  The SBT takes a break from cycling and bike riding to bring our dear readers the top ten “Story Songs” in Rock Music history. They are songs with a plot, suspense, and an outcome.  They tell a story

We start with Reg Dwight and the classic “Levon.”  There was no Levon nor was there a chap named Alvin Tostig but it tells the great story of a man and his son.  Levon was so named because Bernie Taupin, Elton’s lyricist loved listening to Levon Helm and The Band.

Speaking of The Band, our next selection is “The Weight.”  The song is a well told tale of stranger “feeling half past dead” wandering through the town of Nazareth.  Along the way he chats with Crazy Chester, Miss Moses, “Old Luke my friend,” and the Devil--three characters in the New Testament.  Like the classic “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (see the blog post Virgil Caine is the Name for more) the music draws inspiration from the Old South and the harmonies of the Bible Belt.  

“Hotel California” is a bad dream set to music.  We have all stirred in a cold sweat from a dream similar in vein: traveling with no real destination in mind only to finally find a place from which “you can never leave.”  The song conjures up the spooky images of “dark desert highways” and wine brought by sinister “captains.”

To move into something heavy we find a great story of the American west by a group of headbangers from Leyton, London, England—Iron Maiden.  “Run to the Hills” is simply a great heavy metal song.  It tells the story of the sometimes tragic “Manifest Destiny” and America’s population surge from the East Coast to the Pacific.    

Often times travel makes a good story, of being on the road.  A common theme about rock is that the second album for most artists is written on the road and hence most of the songs on a sophomore effort deal with the rigors of the road.  No song tells that better than Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page.”  He writes about being “strung out from the road” and “shaking off the cold.”  The song begins and caps off with some haunting saxophone.

One strange song that tells a story apropos of today is “Spirit of Radio” by Rush.  The song, thanks to Neil Peart had some pretty heady lyrics.  Example, who uses “unobtrusive” in a song?  But the band does such a thing in “Spirit of Radio” and it works.  It talks about the power of music coming through the speakers, of finding your favorite radio station and jamming out.  “The magic music makes your morning mood” the band says and it speaks to those days before iPods, internet and satellite radio.  We relied on the DJs and they delivered.  “Invisible airwaves crackle with life.”  They still do.

A group of longhairs from Jacksonville, Florida tell a great story of excess in “That Smell.”  Released on Street Survivors, Lynryd Skynyrd’s final studio album, the song talks of drinking, driving too fast, popping pills and more.  What makes the song great is not one blistering guitar solo but two blistering guitar solos and each solo is not one guitar but three.  The tragic note to the song is its release date of October 17, 1977.  The band’s devastating plane crash took place on October 20, three days later.  

In a great example of art imitating life or life imitating art is Bad Company’s “Shooting Star.”  The song of Johnny the schoolboy and his rise to rock n roll guitar hero is well told and poignantly sung by Paul Rodgers.  The listener cheers Johnny and his going “Straight up to number one.”  Yet, moments later we all come down with the knowledge that Johnny dies one night, “whiskey bottle, sleeping tablets by his bed.”   

Led Zeppelin epitomized the idea of sex and rock n roll.  Robert Plant, with the lean frame and long blond mane was perfect in the role.  He is without question one of rock’s all-time front men and lead singers.  The band consistently rocked out bluesy and sexy three minute sticks of musical dynamite.  Other times Zeppelin would veer off into songs inspired by The Hobbit.  (“Misty Mountain Hop” is a fine example).  But on occasion the lads would give us an epic story like “Kashmir” or “In My Time of Dying” but the song that makes this list is “Achilles Last Stand.”  The song is strange blend inspired by Morocco’s Atlas Mountains (“The mighty arms of Atlas”) and a spring drive through the Greek countryside (“It was an April morning, when they told us we should go”).  The drive ended in a crash in which Plant sustained a broken ankle.  It is one of the few songs where the listener can play air guitar but also lose his/her mind playing air drums thanks to great skin work by the late John Bonham.  

“Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge, drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain” is the type of lyric that immediately brings the image to life in our minds.  Throughout “Jungleland” Bruce Springsteen creates unique mental pictures of people like the Magic Rat, the barefoot girl, and “lonely hearted lovers struggling in dark corners.”  The Big Man's great sax work is epic as is the subtle piano by Roy Bittan.  The song is great story of taking a stand, albeit for naught, down in Jungleland.   

Please visit our website for a live version of “Jungleland” at www.stickybottleteam.net.