It’s short. It’s simple. It’s true. Love trumps hate. Period.
The 33rd Imagine Concert was the last “large venue” concert of the year for me, unless something unforeseen happens. I saw LOTS of large venue shows in 2018.
12/8/18 was a great evening in too many ways to list….but I’ll try:
Friends
Bar food
Music
Music by friends
Music with friends
Pie
All of it with the person I love, and who loves me.
Damn, I’m a lucky old coot.
Today started with brunch in a hotel here in town. Got the room for a steal in a silent auction for a good cause. Got stuck in an elevator on the way down to eat. Could see the front desk across the atrium as we called for help. The person who caught it after we were on the elevator seemed to be having a bad day. Laughing woulda made it better for her.
It did for me.
Just sayin’.
Came home and listened to The White Album. I’m getting ready to spin disc 1 again.
Earlier, Shelly and I sat on the couch and listened to the album that I heard for the very first time just over fifty years ago.
A couple of years ago I wrote about “first time tunes”…FTTs. Songs, often with places attached, that are indelibly stored on my body’s hardrive. I used over 200 words to describe the first time I heard the White Album….in KC…in 1968.
As we listened to “While my guitar gently weeps,” I hummed and caterwauled along.
And thought:
about the lyrics;
about yesterday;
about John Lennon;
about my life today;
about my past;
about the future;
about being.
Just then the CD changer moved to the next disc: one that I burned of songs by many of the artists who I saw in 2018.
The first song that plays off my “mix tape” is by a guy who I finally crossed off my bucket list last year, seeing him twice in a six day stretch. Both times with friends from my first time living in Orygun.
Friends, music, pie…heaven.
I’ll be seeing Amos Lee again in just over 100 days in KC.
Damn, I’m a lucky old coot.
I expect him to sing this song on 3/26/19, which summarizes what I was thinking as I listened to the Fab 4 this morning and contemplated the meaning of being.
If you’re a strict constructionist, the anniversary should be celebrated on March 6 each year. That’s the date from the calendar back in 2011.
I’ve chosen to celebrate the annual event on the first Sunday of March, i.e. a day rather a date.
And after this past weekend, which was one great roadtrip, I think I’ve decided that the first weekend of March should be designated “Separation Anniversary Weekend.”
I have this thing about song lyrics. That is not new news.
Sometimes I love a song when it’s lyrics could’ve been mine, especially if I had any writing talent. Sometimes I love the lyrics of a song when the lyrics are 180 degrees away from where I am, or where I’ve ever been.
And then there are songs like “Indonesia” by Amos Lee. It’s a little of both.
I am prone to have a song, or an artist, “on repeat.” Looking back at my Facebook posts during 2016, I shared links to youtubes of 19 songs that I had listened to over-and-over-and-over-again during the year.
Some of them were by artists that I was going to see soon, or who I had seen recently. Some were songs that I have been listening to for years. Some were from my “desert island” artists: Jackson Browne, Dylan, The Boss, Neil Young, The Rainmakers. There was quite a bit of variety, but it always came back to lyrics.
-=-=-=
In addition to being compulsive about listening to music, I read a lot. Not books so much anymore. I subscribe to lots of magazines and probably spend too much time online reading a variety of things.
Well, I’m not gonna even try that exercise….but if I could audit Natalie’s MTHP 200 Psychology of Music course I think it would be a blast!!
What I am gonna do is pick the six songs from my 2016 Facebook “on repeat” posts whose lyrics have been played the most in the apartment, in the car and in my head.
-=-=-=
It’s easy to pick the first of the six. Here’s what I wrote on July 18, a couple of weeks after I saw them at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland on July 1: “I didn’t run to the city in 2011, but the first few lines describe how I was feeling back then: ‘…I was running from the past, My heart was bleeding, And it hurt my bones to laugh…’ ”
I continue to be mesmerized by the tune, whether I’m watching a video of Derek Trucks making the slide guitar sing and cry or listening to Susan Tedeschi belt it out.
We will be seeing them at The Ryman on March 2. It will be awesome….
-=-=-=
The second song has got to be this one by the Bottle Rockets. We saw them twice in 2016; the first time at a house concert on August 26.
I detest the stars&bars; I LOVE this song. “Heritage” my ass…..the word has four letters and it does start with an H….
“That good ol’ boy’s waving
The stars & bars
It’s a red, white & blue flag
But it ain’t ours
Wave that flag hoss, wave it high
Do you know what it means?
Do you know why?
Maybe being a Rebel ain’t no big deal
But if somebody owned your ass
How would you feel?”
-=-=-=-
The halfway point of my half dozen songs from 2016 is one whose lyrics baffle me a bit, but it’s a song that I can’t shake.
Here’s what I wrote at 10:31 pm the night of my birthday:
“What’s on your mind?”
I got two things on my mind right now:
1. Why can’t I get this song outta my head?
2. WTF did he find in the drawer??
-=-=-=-=
If I was in Dr. Wlodarczyk’s class, there is no doubt that one of my six songs would be by Jackson Browne. Hell….they might all be by him.
The one that I’m gonna pick for 2016 wasn’t even written by him…but this one has some lyrics that hit home during 2016…and in 2017 too!
“Ever since the world’s existed
There’s one thing that is certain
There are those who build walls
And those who open doors…”
And then there is this line: “There can be freedom only when nobody owns it…”
Enough said about politics in these United (?) States….
-=-=-=
My last two songs of 2016 are by a fellow who I hadn’t listened to much until a couple of months ago. Man-o-man have I been missing out. You have been too if you have never listened to Amos Lee.
I’m picking two songs of his with very, very different sentiments. This first one has one of the best break-up lines I’ve ever heard.
“If you feel a chill in the air
It’s my spirit hanging somewhere
and if you ever get scared
Look on the bright side
You got a new life…”
-=-=-=
I heard this last song for the first time 6 or 7 weeks ago. I’m sure that I have heard it 100 times since then. And I’m probably just getting started. The song starts like this:
“My heart is a flower
That blooms every hour
I believe in the power
Of love…”
I do believe in the power of love. And I love this line from “Flower”:
“Tomorrow’s coming and yesterday’s gone…”
-=-=-=
This “pick only six songs” is a tough assignment. I could easily have picked several other songs:
“Stay ahead of the Wolves” by Bob Walkenhorst and Jeff Porter. On 10/28 my FB status: “I needed to hear something like this 5 years ago….there were wolves everywhere I looked back then. Five years on, this is one of their many songs that play in my head often.”
Bob & Jeff played it the next night to a packed house at The Rock House. I tear up everytime I think of it…
On Valentine’s Day I posted a link to “Late to the party” by Kacey Musgraves. “…who needs a crowd when you’re happy at a party for two?”
The Strumbella’s released a catchy tune titled “Spirits” with this line: “I just want to be alive while I’m here…”
I’m not sure when I started doing it. I think it was after Shelly and I moved in together in 2013, but it might have been before then.
I read (or more accurately “skim”) the local paper most mornings in the lobby. I will sometimes send Shelly a text of her horoscope, and sometimes I will include mine. I don’t give much credence to them…or to weather forecasts either…but sometimes I find the former interesting.
Today mine read: “It’s one of those days when you find it easy to appreciate your bountiful life.”
My life is indeed bountiful. I have lots of things to be thankful for. Where to start? Here’s a list. Not prioritized. Some are “little.” Some aren’t. It’s not an exhaustive list. It’s just a list. A short list. I could go on and on, but I won’t now…
-=-=-=
As I write this I have a tray of beets roasting in the oven. Sweet.
A bit ago I talked to my 90 year old dad. Almost every day I call him and we have a walk-n-talk. I walk. Tissel talks. I rack up steps and he and I reminisce, or catch up, or tell tales. Some day I won’t be able to make that call.
Tomorrow I will harvest my last crops of the season when I pick brussel sprouts. That will wrap up the 2016 gardening season. I started harvesting lettuce back in early April. Fresh veggies from the garden for 8 months is a nice bounty.
A year ago I hadn’t been out of the hospital very long, after blood clots in my lungs put me in the hospital for only the third time in my life. That experience makes you think. And appreciate the little things; and the things that aren’t or that aren’t little.
I have more friends today than I did a year ago. Not just acquaintances. Friends.
I live with someone who loves me. I love her. We make a good team. We’re different in lots of ways. Mostly we’re on the same page, especially when it comes to what matters. We like to be together. We like to be alone. We like to be alone together.
Shelly doesn’t complain about my caterwauling, whether it be in the apartment or the car. She doesn’t complain when I play the same cut over and over and over. And sing along each and every time. (Sometimes she has had more than enough of Bob Dylan or Neil Young though….)
Most recently a number of songs by Amos Lee have been on repeat. This one helps me appreciate my bountiful life.
