This, That, and the Other

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to respond to this challenge, “by either using the prompt word morning, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song “It’s Too Late,” or by going with another song by Carole King, or any other breakup song that you like, or you can go with anything else that you think fits.”

This was one of those strange times when I wrote this post last night and scheduled it to be posted this morning at 3:00 am in response to John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop prompt. In John’s prompt I had chosen a line from a song, Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky,” that would have been a perfect breakup song to use for this prompt from Jim. But because I used it in my response to John’s prompt earlier, I didn’t feel I could also use that same song on the same day here for Jim’s prompt.

So I was sitting on the couch in my family room trying to figure out how to respond to Jim’s Thursday inspiration prompt. The TV was tuned to the SiriusXM Classic Vinyl channel for background music — which it always is when we’re not actually watching something on TV —- when I heard the ZZ Top song, “Tush,” start playing. I looked up from my iPhone and saw this:

There, on the screen, was my blogger’s screenname, Fandango, which I hadn’t realized happens to be the name of the ZZ Top album on which the song “Tush” is a track.

I took this as a sign from above or below or wherever such signs originate, to write about the song “Tush” in my response to Jim’s prompt. No, it’s not about morning, it’s not a Carole King song, and it’s not a breakup song.

It’s simply a song about some lonely guy who is heading downtown and praying to get a piece of ass.

I ain't askin' for much
I said, Lord, take me downtown
I'm just lookin' for some tush

As to how the song got its name, the band’s bass guitar player said that tush, as in “That’s a nice tush on that girl,” definitely came from the Yiddish word that means butt, buttocks, derriere, behind, etc., and that was the word they wanted to use. “I don’t know how we got it in Dallas. All it could have took was one guy moving down from New York.”

“Tush” was the first national hit for ZZ Top, who were very popular in Texas but little-known elsewhere.