Melody Gardot & Sting - Little Something (The One Show)

I just heard this today on a jazz radio station, and I love it. I've been a fan of Melody Gardot for a long time, and Sting is always great. Their voices go perfectly together, I think. Also, it is a tune I can't stop humming.

Come Monday - Jimmy Buffett

We have a radio in the barn, and it is set to an independent radio station in Montpelier, Vermont. There is a daily segment of what is called 33 1/3, when the DJ plays a cut from a record. Because it was Labor Day Weekend, the DJ played Jimmy Buffett's Come Monday. The DJ said it is the best song about traveling and missing your loved ones. It had been a while since I'd heard it, and I was so, so happy. I have been a fan for as long as he has been recording. And I have a delightful, and really unexplainable Jimmy Buffett story. In 1980, we flew to Houston to be Godparents to my childhood friend's baby daughter. We got off the plane, and my friend's husband asked what we would like to do in Houston. The words popped right out of my mouth, "see Jimmy Buffett". He said that there was a show. We got tickets, and saw the most wonderful concert. It was the first show I had been to that sold cocktails, obviously margaritas!

Why on earth would I have said that? Who knows, but it sure was amazing. 

I'm quite sure that the DJ played the song on September 1. And so very sadly, he died that night. 

50th Anniversary of Jim Morrison's Death

I wrote about our trip to Paris after the fire at Notre-Dame, and today I am revisiting that trip on the 50th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death. First of all, there is no way my head can get around the fact of all those years. From 23 to 73 in a blink of my eye. How is that even possible? 

Anyhow, when we were in Paris, we visited Pere Lachaise cemetery. I don't think we went because of anyone special who was buried there. We had heard about it, and spent a day walking through. It is truly beautiful. 

Fast forward to weeks later. We were in Dublin on a bus, and saw a newstand out the window. There was a copy of Rolling Stone and Jim Morrison was on the cover. We were so excited to buy it. When we actually saw it, our happiness quickly went away. That beautiful boy, dead. Even now I can't believe it. This is my copy of the magazine. Not sure if it is the one we saw in Ireland.

And it was so strange to know we had been at the cemetery after he had been buried there. Just the idea that we could have seen his grave without knowing he had died. Gives me shivers.

So, in honor of the 50th anniversary of his death, I thought I'd post a song. It was hard to choose just which one, but here you go. 

The Crystal Ship

Before you slip into unconsciousness

I'd like to have another kiss

Another flashing chance at bliss

Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain

Enclose me in your gentle rain

The time you ran was too insane

We'll meet again, we'll meet again

Oh tell me where your freedom lies

The streets are fields that never die

Deliver me from reasons why

You'd rather cry, I'd rather fly

The crystal ship is being filled

A thousand girls, a thousand thrills

A million ways to spend your time

When we get back, I'll drop a line

I read someone's analysis of the song, and you may read it here. All it showed me is that one cannot really analyze poetry! It is what it is to whomever is reading it. 

Grammy and Nana award winner! The Adults Are Talking - The Strokes LIVE NYE

This year I did something I hadn't done since I was a kid. I bought an album called The New Abnormal by The Strokes based on my love of one song, "The Adults Are Talking"! Every time it was on the radio, I stopped in my tracks, and thought that I just had to own it. Happily, I love every single song on the record. But this one, oh, is a perfect, perfect song to me. I love every note. The album has not left the turntable for weeks. When I heard it had won the Grammy award for Best Rock Album, I was so happy. The lyrics are a bit hard to understand, but honestly, I don't even care that much. It is that music and voice and instruments that I am wild about.

 

Lukas Nelson - Focus On The Music (Quarantunes Evening Session)

 

Gotta focus on the music
Focus on the heart of things
Focus on the peace that music brings

Musicians have been very creative in getting their music out there. This "quarantune" was an early example. You can see it is as homemade as it gets.The singer, the guitar, the recording device.

There were three evenings in the past few months when music did "carry me merrily and gently down the stream".

The first one was early on, in March. Chris Smither was on what is called a Parlor Room Home Session. He is a longtime time favorite of Tom and I, and it was a delight to see him in his own home. He told stories and sang his wonderful songs. I was transfixed. The music was just what I needed when everything had changed so much in such a short time. You may watch it here. Just to let you know, it takes a few minutes before he appears.

The second one was Keith Urban, live streaming on Amazon Music. An hour in which I thought of nothing. I just basked in the music. There are several videos on YouTube from the show. Here is one where Keith sings with Pink.

The third was a live stream of Farm Aid. You may find most (all?) of the performances here. I hope that address works, but if not, just go to YouTube and type in Farm Aid 2020. This is where I first heard Lukas Nelson, and I've since bought an album, and follow him on Instagram where he often posts videos. Lately he's been doing something called Soundcheck Songs where his band Promise of the Real explores "songs and artists, some well-known, some more obscure, that have influenced us as a band in one way or another." These are also on YouTube on his page. Farm Aid introduced me to other artists I'd not heard before like Black Pumas, whose album I've also bought. You may see a Tiny Desk Concert of them here. 

And speaking of Tiny Desk Concerts, they are a wonderful music source to visit, if you haven't already. The main page is here. 

Music gives solace to my soul and is as necessary as air, never more than in this strange and sad year.

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. 

How did they get away with it?

 I'm watching the British television show New Tricks for maybe the sixth time, and every time I see it I wonder how Mike Moran, the man who wrote the theme song got away with such a copy of The Traveling Wilburys song, End of the Line.

I have searched and searched and can't find any controversy about it, though I did find this:

A version sung by Dennis Waterman was used as the theme too for the pilot of another BBC production, New Tricks, although this was soon replaced by a similar-sounding song, "It's All Right", by Mike Moran, which is easily mistaken for End of the Line.

Yet, apparently, there was no brouhaha, no lawsuit, and as I've found, barely a mention.

What do you think? 

And after I wrote the above sentence, I went to YouTube and tried to insert the video of both songs, but something has changed. This may be to do with the new Blogger. Anyhow, as with most things in life there is good and bad about it. I can now "share" immediately on a blog post, but I don't seem to be able to insert into a blog post. The only solution I have for right now is to put up both videos in separate posts, and hope you come back here to see why in the world they are there! 

Today's Christmas song - All Those Christmas Clichés

This may be my new favorite song of Christmas. It isn't new, but it is new to me. I heard it on the same show that I linked to in the post featuring Memphis in June here. The station plays songs from the American Songbook all the time, but on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to three, there is a show hosted by Jonathan Schwartz. He is the most passionate, most knowledgeable person around when it comes to the American Songbook. He has been one of the four or five important teachers in my life.

Schwartz is a big fan of the late Nancy LaMott who died too young. He played this song the other day, and I was stopped in my tracks. The line about "Johnny Mathis". I still have my mother's Johnny Mathis Christmas Album.

With the date she got it in her handwriting. Means the world to me.

And I got this text from Margaret the other day, which warmed my heart.

Making cupcakes using your chocolate cake recipe for Hazel's birthday at school tomorrow, listening to Johnny Mathis - doesn't get any better!!

So, as they say, without further ado

Van the Man

It was a toss-up whether to post this tomorrow when it is really September, or today which is Van Morrison's 74th birthday, but I decided to do it on his birthday. Over the years of this blog, I've written many times about Van. My life is so much richer because of his music. It is always hard to think of which is my favorite of his songs, but this one is right up there.

Elvis

My favorite Elvis Presley song on what would have been his 84th birthday.

Ray for the day

On Ray Davies' 73rd birthday I decided to put up the title song from his latest album, Americana. What is so interesting to me is that The Kinks and all the 'British Invasion' bands brought England to this young teenager in New England. The music led me to study British literature in college. Much of my reading still is by British writers, and my television viewing is almost exclusively British shows.

I've written about Ray quite a few times here in my letters. You may just type his name into the search bar if you're interested.

After the Americana video, I've also posted two short ones about his knighthood. Sir Ray!







PS - You may read where Ray for the day comes from here. Ten years ago today!!

Some videos which are all about the deep thoughts we have in our twenties

When we were in our twenties, Tom remarked on the fact that we now had adult memories; that we could look back and see a past. That doesn’t happen in your teens. It seems to be a perception, a knowledge that occurs when one is a twenty-something. 

My favorite Pink Floyd song tells of this experience, and I happened to see that Roger Waters, who wrote the lyrics, came to the realization when he was 28 or 29. 

This song is about how time can slip by, but many people do not realise it until it is too late. Roger Waters got the idea when he realised he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but was right in the middle of it. 

"Time"

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking

Racing around to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

When I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire

Far away, across the fields

The tolling of the iron bell

Calls the faithful to their knees

To hear the softly spoken magic spell

One of my very early posts spotlighted the first Keane album. A song from it that expresses this same twenties experience is Somewhere Only We Know.

I walked across an empty land

I knew the pathway like the back of my hand

I felt the earth beneath my feet

Sat by the river, and it made me complete

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?

I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on

So tell me when you're gonna let me in

I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree

I felt the branches of it looking at me

Is this the place we used to love?

Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?

I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on

So tell me when you're gonna let me in

I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute, why don't we go

Talk about it somewhere only we know?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go

Somewhere only we know?

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?

I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on

So tell me when you're gonna let me in

I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute, why don't we go

Talk about it somewhere only we know?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go?

So why don't we go?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go

Somewhere only we know

Somewhere only we know

Somewhere only we know?

Adele’s latest album 25 is described here and there’s that same theme. 

"Million Years Ago"

I only wanted to have fun

Learning to fly learning to run

I let my heart decide the way

When I was young

Deep down I must have always known

That this would be inevitable

To earn my stripes I'd have to pay

And bare my soul

I know I'm not the only one

Who regrets the things they've done

Sometimes I just feel it's only me

Who can't stand the reflection that they see

I wish I could live a little more

Look up to the sky not just the floor

I feel like my life is flashing by

And all I can do is watch and cry

I miss the air, I miss my friends

I miss my mother, I miss it when

Life was a party to be thrown

But that was a million years ago

When I walk around all of the streets

Where I grew up and found my feet

They can't look me in the eye

It's like they're scared of me

I try to think of things to say

Like a joke or a memory

But they don't recognize me now

In the light of day

I know I'm not the only one

Who regrets the things they've done

Sometimes I just feel it's only me

Who never became who they thought they'd be

I wish I could live a little more

Look up to the sky not just the floor

I feel like my life is flashing by

And all I can do is watch and cry

I miss the air I miss my friends

I miss my mother I miss it when

Life was a party to be thrown

But that was a million years ago

A million years ago

This post was prompted by an Ed Sheeran video I watched this morning. I thought, oh my gosh, this really is a ‘thing.’ It is a life truth that when we’ve had a few years of living, we look back to see where we came from and what shaped us and how the time goes by. 

"Castle on the Hill"

When I was six years old I broke my leg

I was running from my brother and his friends

And tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass I rolled down

I was younger then, take me back to when I

Found my heart and broke it here

Made friends and lost them through the years

And I’ve not seen the roaring fields in so long, I know I’ve grown

But I can’t wait to go home.

I’m on my way 

Driving at 90 down those country lanes

Singing to “Tiny Dancer”

And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real

We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

Fifteen years old and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes

Running from the law through the back fields and getting drunk with my friends

Had my first kiss on a Friday night, I don’t reckon I did it right

But I was younger then, take me back to when

We found weekend jobs, when we got paid

We’d buy cheap spirits and drink them straight

Me and my friends have not thrown up in so long, oh how we’ve grown

But I can’t wait to go home

I’m on my way

Driving at 90 down those country lanes

Singing to “Tiny Dancer”

And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real

We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

Over the castle on the hill

Over the castle on the hill

One friend left to sell clothes

One works down by the coast

One had two kids but lives alone

One’s brother overdosed

One’s already on his second wife

One’s just barely getting by

But these people raised me

And I can’t wait to go home

And I’m on my way, I still remember

These old country lanes

When we did not know the answers

And I miss the way you make me feel, it’s real

We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

Over the castle on the hill

Over the castle on the hill

Death of Leonard Cohen

I just read on my blogging friend Robin's Instagram that Leonard Cohen has died. I feel so very sad about this. He has been a musical fixture in my life for nearly fifty years. I can't believe he is gone.

Last month I posted a photo of Hazel Nina and I walking and I quoted a line from Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye. I planned to put up a video of he and Judy Collins singing it. This was a meaningful song to Tom and I when we were kids because we were always being separated by school schedules and family responsibilities.

So now I shall post it in memory of, and in honor of, the wonderful Leonard Cohen.



You may read a very recent article in The New Yorker here.

Moondance

Can you see this amazing almost full moon (officially 12.23 am eastern time on Sunday) this evening? Wish I had a great camera to capture it.

Of course the song that comes to mind is Van's Moondance. This is from 1979. Though it says Belfast, the notes say it was really in Dublin. Just the best, best song.

Darlene Love's Last Christmas Appearance on Letterman

Still the best! And still so beautiful!

50 years ago tonight

As I’ve done a few times in my letters, I checked into my mother’s diary and my diary to compare notes on a particular occasion. On February 9, 1964 my 50-year old mother merely wrote:

Tonight watched T.V. The Beatles were on from England.

and the next day:

Deids and Nan listening to Beatles album. B. gave her allowance early so she could get it.

My almost-16 year old self wrote:

Tonite on Ed Sullivan the Beatles were on. They were wonderful. They’re so adorable esp Paul, Ringo, John + George. their hair is the utmost. They are so wonderful. they sang about 6 songs at 2 diff times. Geesum they’re so great. I love ‘em!

I don't feel a whole lot different about them than I did that long ago night. 

Here's a snippet I was able to find:

Musical coming attractions

This is the Christmas music I've bought so far this year, and you may expect postings about them next month. Merry December music!

Françoise Hardy

What on earth prompts a young American girl to listen to a young French girl sing in French? That was me in the late 1960s, listening to Françoise Hardy albums. For most of us in the US we were first introduced to her in a famous scene in the 1966 movie Grand Prix. Happily I found it, with a little bit of James Garner afterwards.





She was the essence of cool to me. Her songs in English, and the ones I couldn't understand in French, created a grownup world I was just beginning to enter. On the album Françoise Hardy there are translations in the liner notes. I can remember poring over them. They are all about romance and relationships. For example in the song 'Quatre Fois'

Four times now winter has come and the falling snow still speaks of you. I sit down on every bench and I wait for you. Four times I have seen the rust colored leaves which died in autumn beneath our feet as we walked in the woods - do you remember? We'd be walking and people would say 'How happy they are, how happy are those two!'

Heady stuff for a young girl. In those days, I was immersed in the poetry of Kenneth Patchen, and even Rod Mckuen for a while. ee cummings was so important in my life that for years I never used capital letters. My one venture into writing poetry was on black paper using white ink. Sadly (?) it has disappeared.

In those days, I didn't know anyone else who listened to her music. And I still don't except for a woman who left a comment on my blog four years ago. When I went over to hers, Life Must Be Filled Up, and saw the name Françoise Hardy on her sidebar, I knew I had come upon a kindred spirit.

I am still a fan, and have her 2010 album La pluie sans parapluie (the rain without an umbrella). It is lovely.




Françoise has a website. It is thrilling to see that she has over 50,000 friends on Facebook. Apparently my blogging friend and I were not the only ones listening all those years ago.

Here is a sweet little video of a song which is on my The Best of Françoise Hardy album.





If you go to YouTube, you'll find lots more. There is also a great tribute on the The Style Notebook, where I was pleased to read that a favorite artist Feist was influenced by her.

This is an offering for Paris in July.

Janet Lennon's birthday

The Lawrence Welk show was a big part of my childhood. Every week my parents and I sat down to watch. Sometimes my parents would dance. To me, the Lennon Sisters were role models; gentle, kindly, and beautiful. Because Janet was only two years older than me, she was the one I was most drawn to. When I grew up and had little ones of my own, I was happy to discover that PBS offered reruns of the old show. Margaret and Michael loved it, just as I had. They still remember all of us piling onto the big bed at 7 o'clock on Saturday evenings.

On Janet Lennon's 66th birthday, I thought it would be fun to see an old clip of the Lennon Sisters, all of whom I am happy to say are still alive. Some still perform. Janet and Kathy have a wonderful doll business. Please go here to see a really nice video with them talking about it.

I love this song, and I love the way they sing it.

All I could wish for Mother's Day weekend …

was having Michael, Margaret and her boyfriend Matthew, and Tom alongside me in the fourth row from the stage at a Rusted Root concert! We had THE BEST time. Every single person in the place was on their feet dancing for the whole show. It is amazing to realize that Margaret was 12 and Michael was 9 when the When I Woke album came out. It is still just as great all these years later, as is the band. If you ever get a chance to see them, don't pass it up. They put on a great show. The audience consisted of people younger than Michael and older than Tom and I. That's a rare band that appeals to all ages.

I mentioned their wonderful song, Send Me On My Way in a sad posting from four years ago.

Here's a video from a 2011 show.