Monday, September 28, 2020

The Standards

 I grew up with parents who had been through the Second World War. My father was in the Army and my mother was a nurse in a hospital at home. I became aware of the American Standards, or the American Songbook, very young. The Dorseys were familiar names in my house, and I am pretty sure my mother saw them. She sang as she worked around the house, and those songs are always in my head. 

A few years after she died I found myself wanting records of the old music. I went to my local book and record store. The owner said the music just wasn't available anymore. This was ages before the internet, and there were things that were impossible to find. 

And then, in 1978, when I was 30, Willie Nelson came out with his Stardust album. 

I was in musical heaven. Here they were - the old songs that I so wanted to hear. 



Willie was 45 in 1978. 

And now a technical note. When I used to post a video from YouTube, I would embed it but now when I try to do so, and look at the preview it is only the address that shows up. There is an actual "blogger" tab to hit, and it comes right up on my blog. However, I don't seem to be able to write anything with the video. Thus, I will post Willie singing "September Song" from Stardust in another blog post. And then, treat of all treats, I'll put up Lukas Nelson singing it with Micah and Willie playing along. I had Tom close his eyes and tell me who was singing, and he said "Willie" immediately! Lukas will be 32 this year. 

18 comments:

  1. I grew up with this music too and still love it.

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    1. Me, too. If you are interested (I think I mentioned it before here) there is a station you can listen to online. https://thejonathanstation.com/
      I listen on weekends at noon-3 (repeated at night 8-11) when Jonathan is actually there. The other days, though I love the music, there are ads, which I really don't like.

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  2. That's one of my favorite Willie Nelson albums, too, Nan. I just about wore it out before I digitized it so that it wouldn't sound any worse than it was already starting to sound from all the wear on it.

    Your Blogger problem is odd. I just did a test post on both the Compose and HTML tabs and found that inserting a YouTube video and commenting is working for me. You might want to reboot your computer to see if that doesn't clear some kind of "conflict" you might be having. That has worked for me before when this kind of thing happens...not always, though.

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    1. When you insert it, and go to preview, do you see the address - the words and numbers of you tube - or do you see the video? I know you can't play it on preview, but I used to at least see it. The computer is shut down every few weeks, but ... our computer is almost 10 years old, and we are THREE operating systems behind. The plan is to get a new one in the new year! I wouldn't be surprised if this is the problem. It will be fun to see what all we've been missing when we get the new one. I'm pretty psyched.

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    2. I see the video itself, not just its address.

      Blogger is not playing nicely with a whole lot of different operating systems these days. I still cannot copy from word directly into the Compose screen. I have to go to HTML, flip back, ad re-format the whole thing all over again. Very frustrating.

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    3. What you just wrote was another language, right?! haha.
      I haven't had any trouble with the new blogger. And this isn't even really trouble for me. I'll just post videos. I don't have to say anything about them!

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  3. I grew up with it too - my parents were both in the Army - Mom one of the first WAC's. My Dad, before joining the Army, played with Benny Goodman for about a year (Sax). They are both gone now, so hearing the old swing & big band tunes is bittersweet - but I still love it. Thanks for mentioning Willie's album - I never listened to it & I must. :)

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    1. Benny Goodman!! Wow!
      I had an aunt who was an army nurse. Funny, but I know not one story from any of my relatives who were in the war. Maybe I was just too young to ask the questions, or they thought I was too young to talk to about their war experiences before they all died. And people didn't talk as much then about their pasts.

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  4. My parents were a touch too young and were country music fans to boot, so I didn't hear these when I was a kid. It wasn't until I met my husband in my mid-thirties that I learned them. His parents were in the war and also kept a small band going through the sixties with these.

    Was it really all that long ago that Willie released that album? I missed it then.

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    1. I am still amazed that it took Willie Nelson to begin the new interest in those old songs. Now every singer seems to have done one or more albums of the American Songbook, and I own a lot of them! Quite especially fond of Rod Stewart's versions.

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  5. Yes, when listening to the garden song I thought if I had closed my eyes it would have sounded just like Willie.

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  6. It won't surprise you to read that I am not familiar with the music, but of course there are songs almost everyone in Germany (at least up to my generation) will know from early childhood onwards. Because of O.K. playing in the village band, I hear some of those old familiar songs frequently, as they still play them at village fêtes, birthdays and other occasions. Not so much this year, of course, with all the restrictions in place, but the band members still practice and occasionally play in public.
    It is such a comfort, isn't it, to hear songs that we have known all our lives.

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    1. The world is so much more "international" now in that we know more of other countries' literature, music, foods, etc.
      I do so love the idea of "village bands".

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  7. That song made me cry when I first heard it .... and back then I was not there yet. Now..... (but I am glad and grateful to be here. Through my tears.) .

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  8. I love all those old standards. I also enjoy listening to Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. For Sentimental Reasons and What's New are both great albums.

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