Imagine playing with trains

Leonard enjoyed playing with his train set quite a lot. The trickiest bit was near the end of a long downgrade, where the train had a tendency to pick up far too much speed. Leonard had to be particularly alert and ready switch off to a side rail to save the day. Fortunately, the switching went without a hitch, and the train barreled past on its new southern course. He leaned against the switchbox and watched his train roll past, whistling happily. Seven minutes later, the two trains collided head-on at full speed with more than hundred passenger casualties.

Inspired by this image and title from this song. Hmm, several other scenes to work with out of those lyrics…heh heh chortle.

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Some odd heroes to worship

I don’t have just one unsung hero. I have dozens of them.

I’ve been collecting them for years now. Odd little pieces of memory for me, faded bygones for everybody else.

I collect One-Hit Wonders. Musicians who charted big, one time, and then vanished into the obscurity of history. To become radio DJs or producers for other musicians or even realtors(!)

I preserve their brief moments of fame, here on my MP3 player.

Wild Cherry. Right Said Fred. Murray Head. Devo. A-ha. American Hi-Fi. Blue Swede. Rick Astley. Soft Cell. Taco.

Some you might recognize. Others you might have to really dig to find. Some are given rebirths by a movie soundtrack (Blue Swede sold a lot of copies of a song last heard in the 70s, thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy). Some are revived as internet memes (Rickrolled!).

A lot of those artists had pretty miserable contracts. They aren’t getting any royalties from modern sales on iTunes. I feel for these guys; rolled over by the Music Industry, in many cases, and abandoned on the side of the road.

I love ‘em all. I’m not sure why, guess I like to root for the underdogs?

We all have our semi-secret, less-known personal favorites — a great B-side, an early work by an artist that later became famous, an obscure (but delicious) family recipe. Share one of your unsung heroes with us — how did you discover it? Why has it stayed off everyone’s radar?