I suppose it might be covered with snow this year and then again maybe not. Perhaps it was in 1968 when James Taylor wrote ” Sweet Baby James.” It turns out there really was a baby James Taylor born to James’ brother Alex and his wife.
I was perusing the Pandora channel this morning when I came upon James Taylor telling the story of how he came to write ” Sweet Baby James” for his nephew James.
The bottom line is that there is another James Taylor and if he was born circa 1968 he would be, let’s see, 6 plus 7 carry the one around 49 years old. I wonder how it feels to have a song written about you.
Further on down the road, also on Pandora, ” Danny’s Song” popped up. You know ” Even though we ain’t got money…” And that song is also written about a baby which I think Kenny Loggins wrote for his brother and his wife who were also about to have a son. So where’s that kid and how does it feel to also have a song written about you.
And thanks to a dear friend who introduced me to Loggins & Messina in the wilds of Connecticut once upon a time.
Maybe James Taylor, James Taylor, and the Loggins kid should get together with Kenny and write another song or at least record a medley of their hit birth announcement songs.
Clearly, I have too much time on my hands and too much space left in my brain.
During my prolonged summer and early fall absence from these pages I’ve been awarded customer of the month twice at the local orthopedic surgeon store. The details are unimportant.
I highly recommend the nerve block for any surgery. It’s got a delightful aroma of hickory with a hint of whimsy. Plus, your arm, leg, shoulder or knee feels like a 2 x 4 for a day and a half after the surgery so there’s that. I have no idea what it costs but I’m telling you it’s a bargain at twice the price. Which bring us to our most recent MRI.
I get suited up or dressed down as the case may be and as I’m lying (laying?) on the table that’s about to slide me into the magnetic tunnel the MRI tech asks if I would like to listen to music instead of bricks rolling around in a dryer. I say yes – what do you have?
He hands me the play list and I say channel 788 which is the Frank Sinatra station. The quality of the audio in the headphones is terrible but I don’t care. I’m just hoping I haven’t forgotten if I have a pacemaker or a stent or any other piece of metal in my body which I guess would get zoomed out of me at hypersonic magnetic speed once the machine starts. Clearly there would be blood everywhere, all of it mine along with an internal organ or two draped over the MRI machine. And so much paperwork – Oy.
In I go, the music begins, it’s old Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board and the first sounds I hear are… BANG BANG BANG BANG AND NOW THE END IS NEAR AND SO I FACE THE FINAL CURTAIN …BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG…
It’s ” My Way” one of Frankie’s biggest hits not exactly appropriate but I laugh it off without moving cause you can’t move once the magnets start taking pictures. That tune is followed by Dean Martin’s ” Ain’t that a Kick in the Head?” and soon the hammering stops, I’m back on my feet and on the way home.
I don”t know if Frank was trying to reach me from the great beyond or if I was a victim of a simple twist of fated black humor. But Frank, if you’re listening keep those hits coming. I’ll take the pumpkin spice nerve block next time.
Out on the road yesterday for an easy run. Quickly fell into an easy rhythm, troubles melted away and my brain went into an active and relaxed thinking mode. Here is the result of those thoughts.
Ira Gershwin who wrote ” I Got Rhythm” along with his brother George was known to take his pen to any copies of sheet music that said ” I’ve Got Rhythm” and cross out the ” ‘ve.” He was adamant about the song title. Imagine being presented with that melody and tasked with writing the lyrics. Originally the song was intended as a ballad.
As I was motored along with my brain, heart and lungs all conversing in a delightful cruising mode and hitting on all cylinders I knew I had found a sweet spot.
I read a book years ago by John Jerome called ” The Sweet Spot in Time” and it was about how when everything is clicking and humming along that you’ve found that special sweet spot. He explored the science of the sweet spot, when every muscle and nerve from your toes to eyes and brain function flawlessly to produce that feeling.
You know when you’ve found that sweet spot when swing a golf club, a tennis racket of a baseball bat. I contend that it also applies to running.
Imagine the millions of nerves, neurons, synapses all firing at the exact right moment to produce a sweet home run swing. Yesterday I had the same delicious sequence of events while I was running.
I was surely present during the run but feeling so good that while I was there I wasn’t there at the same time. If you’ve had that experience you know what I’m talking about.
Same with playing guitar. Sometimes I’ll fall so deep in playing that I’ll hear music playing somewhere and have to snap out of my musical trance to realize that it’s me doing the playing.
Yesterday’s run was exactly like a waking trance. So deep in that I was lost and the reward, well, you runners know the reward of the post run buzz that lasts for hours.
Tell me George isn’t in a sweet spot right here:
Call it what you will. For me it’s Reading, Writing, Running and Rhythm.
Spent time last night perusing the You Tubes for new /old music or old/new music and happened on this one. I do this a lot.
I’ve always liked this tune from the first time I heard back during the mid 1960’s and I think that somewhere in my back pages I wrote a post that features it. I’ll look for that later.
But sitting here at the kitchen table on a snowy and cold Tuesday morning in January and watching birds flutter around the feeder I decided that I needed an instant summertime trip and so here it is.
This might not be your idea of July but it suits me just fine even with six months to go.
Sometimes when I create a post I wait until I have completed the piece to come up with a title. Tonight, let’s do something a little different. I’ll let you decide what the title should be. The contest is open to everyone. No prizes to be awarded except I’ll publish a post with all entries. This should be fun. Let’s see where this goes…
I spent my afternoon at a local retirement community where I played my guitar and sang for a roomful of very senior citizens. It’s semi – irregular gig that I have. It’s really a lot of fun.
The room demographics unofficially break down as follows: 25 total attendees, 20 women, 5 men and almost everyone well into their 70’s and beyond. Having played other retirement facilities I can safely say that women always outnumber men. So ladies, the odds that you will outlive your husband are pretty good and I’m sure that there are real statistics that will back me up.
At least a dozen wheeled walkers parked in the room and a pair of motorized scooters. My task today was to entertain these folks as they celebrated August birthdays.
Knowing my audience I chose a set list that included songs written way back in the last century. The oldest tune in the set was either ” I got Rhythm” or ” Lady be Good ” both written by the Gershwin brothers, George and Ira. Other tunes included : ” All of Me, ( 1931), Route 66 ( 1946), ” If I only had a Brain” ( 1939) and you get the picture.
I like learning and playing these tunes. The lyrics really mean something and the chords are rich and full. Our motto ” I play no songs written in THIS century.”
I think that every song has a story. That is – Who wrote it? Where were you when you first heard it? Who were you with ? As Time goes By ( 1931), Satin Doll ( 1953).
So, I work my way through the set along with encouraging group participation. Sing along, thump the table, dance – we’re here for fun. I’ve Got you under my Skin ( 1936 – Cole Porter don’t you know.) I always channel my inner Sinatra when I sing this one.
The point of this post is not so much about my playing or singing. It’s about the people in the audience. Retirement communities in this county are a growth industry. They are popping up like mushrooms after a day long rain. But they wouldn’t be unless there was a constant supply of older people. That I’m staring my future in squarely in the face is not lost on me, not for a minute. I’m years away from living in a cottage on the grounds or on the assisted living wing.
It’s an odd society we’ve created with these ” retirement communities.” I guess we used to call then nursing homes. I don’t know what you do when your spouse dies, your kids live hundreds of miles away and you need a scooter to get around. I don’t know what to do when you need pretty constant medical care and someone to cook and clean for you.
So, this is where our parents and grandparents live now. I know that I’ll never have the financial wherewithal to afford living in one of these places. So, before I depress all of you and myself with my thoughts I have to tell you a story. I swear this is true.
One of the people in the audience is a guy I’ll call Jimmy because that’s his real name.
Jimmy grew up in Brooklyn and knew the Paterno family in Brooklyn way before Joe was the football coach at Penn State.
Jimmy and I talked about bands he saw growing up like the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and on and on. He tells me that he used to go to jazz club in the city ( New York) that was owned by a guy named Jack Crystal. Yes, Billy’s dad.
Billy’s dad used to provide a home away from home at his club for traveling musicians back in the 30′ s and 40’s. One time Jimmy sat at a table with Benny Goodman. Benny had Gene Krupa with him and his great pianist Teddy Wilson. Jimmy wrote a letter to Billy telling him what great guy his dad was and Billy replied. Jimmy gave the letter to his kids and told them to take care of that letter.
Jimmy used to go Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, before they left for LA.
I’m trying to head for home on this post with a clear direction so as to make coming up with a title easier for all of you.
My overall impression of my afternoon and of all the other times I’ve played facilities like these is… I miss my parents for sure. I always see them out in the audience and I hope that they would be pleased at what I’m doing. Mom and Dad have been gone for many years. They grew up with the music I’m now playing. As a punk kid I really disliked it and now I’ve come full circle to embrace it.
Senior citizens have a lot to offer and I’m careful not to marginalize them or anything they say. I’m always a great listener. These folks in many cases were born in the 20’s lived through the Depression, WWII, elected Ike twice, witnessed a man on the moon and a black president. That’s a pretty full resume I’d say.
Music ties us all together. It’s great historical thread. We’re all more alike than we realize.
Time to wrap this up with a great version of a great tune I did this afternoon by the great Nat King Cole arranged by the great Nelson Riddle.
The bottom line is that I get great enjoyment from playing these songs and if I can share a little of my happiness with these folks then I’ve done my job. Where you gonna get a chance to sit and talk with a guy like Jimmy?
Good luck with a title because I haven’t got a clue.
If you remember your high school French the word ” sans” means without. And so that’s how I run now and have run for years and years.
I started running when I was 13 years old and a freshman in high school. I just signed up for Medicare so do the math, I’ll wait…and yeah, it works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 years. To be sure I haven’t run every day since 1963 but running is as natural to me as breathing, playing my guitar or singing Beach Boy songs.
Running with music wasn’t an option when I started and even when it became possible to run while listening to music I never picked up the habit. When I run the only thing I want to listen to is the sound of me. I like hearing my breath and the sound of my shoes hitting the ground.
In races, especially marathons chatting with fellow runners helps to pass the time and miles. Nowadays, so many runners are wired for sound and that makes starting a conversation pretty difficult. I mean, I guess I understand how music can help motivate a person on a run but I can’t quite bring myself to join the crowd.
I have plenty of music to play inside my head when I run and I also spend a good deal of time on my runs arranging songs.
But if I did run with a musical device here the song that would be number one on the playlist and incidentally, it’s from 1964 and I think it’s in the Key of E.
Way back in bunch of previous posts I kind of chronicled my years of running but that was before I figured out how helpful tags were and way before I had any likes or followers. If you feel adventurous feel free to dig through the blog. Have a great weekend.
I can safely say that Spring has arrived here on the East Coast or more specifically south central Pennsylvania. It’s about time. The winter, in case anyone has really short memories, was tough.
Lots of yard work and planning for outside summer house projects that sometimes are completed by September and sometimes not. My favorite part of spring is being able to get back to running on a more regular and serious basis. Summer will bring road races and all that fun.
Since my blog is called ” Reading, Writing, Running and Rhythm” I thought I would try and cover all the bases in one sitting.
Just finished a book called ” Where Nobody Knows Your Name” by John Feinstein. It’s about a year in the the minor leagues, specifically the International League where players, managers, umpires and broadcasters all aspire to one day being in the major leagues. It’s a Triple A league which means it’s one step removed from the bigs but it’s a mighty big step. There are stories about players on the way up, on the way down and in between. If you love baseball – this might be a good read.
Writing – mostly I only write on these electronic pages and in my running journal where I keep stats and times. It gives me a good reading on where my running was last year. It goes back several years through good runs, not so good runs, injuries, recoveries, races and marathons.
The Running portion is fairly obvious. If you chance to look back I have written a number of articles on running especially from way back when I first started to run. My slanted view of history as I see it and after a few years I’m still at it.
And Rhythm – well, we all love music and my tastes are pretty broad from George and Ira Gershwin through The Beatles, Django, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, The Beach Boys and I could fill pages on music that moves me.
There are a number of Spring tunes around and I stumbled on this one a few years back.
