Playing Favorites 7/1/2022

So, music lovers, the question of the day is: How far down the list of songs I like (or even songs I love) can a song fall and still be regarded as a favorite?  And, in fact, Can a song that I’ve completely forgotten about but used to love qualify for Playing Favorites?  This week, as I was looking through YouTube’s list of live performances, I came across Greg Lake (formerly of Emerson, Lake and Palmer) performing From the Beginning.  So the question becomes, Can a song I’ve forgotten about but used to love … by one member of the band that originally recorded said song, a member who, by the way, died in 2016 … qualify for Playing Favorites?  Of course, while the questions sound hard, the answer is easy.   Here on Oldereyes – Bud’s Blog, my Alter Ego and I make the rules and we usually agree.  Like today.

Playing Favorites 5/27/2022

It has been a long week, a descent from a very happy birthday through the news that my daughter’s family will be moving away to my own futile attempt to avoid the sadness through denial, anger and bargaining (see Navigating Grief).  Last night I sent my son-in-law and daughter a note, telling them I was trying to accept their decision.   The very act of doing so stoked my anger again but this morning, I feel different.   I think am ready for the Grey Ghost of depression to wring the tears out of me and guide me to acceptance.

If you knew me personally, it wouldn’t surprise that I carry on my music devices a Heartbreakers playlist of sad songs to help this reluctant crier bring the tears.  All beautiful sad songs.   But which one gets to be the Favorite played today.  Easy.  Shattered  Beautiful melody written by Jimmy Webb.   It is remarkable how many songs by Webb grace my music files.  The most perfect pop female voice in my generation (perhaps any), Linda Ronstadt.   And the lyrics …

Shattered
Like a windowpane
Broken by a stone
Each tiny piece of me lies alone

They would rip the heart out of the Gray Ghost himself, if he had one.

Enjoy … or have a good cry … whichever suits your day.

Throwback Thursday – Driving Music

In an attempt to get back to blogging on a regular basis, I am designating Thursdays as Throwback Thursdays. That will assure I post once a week by posting old favorites from the almost 2000 posts that have appeared here. This one is from November of 2009 and, appropriately, its about music. Yes, it’s a dated playlist. But, hey, I’m 72 … I’m dated, too.

Speeding along a winding Connecticut back road in a 1965 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce with the top down in the autumn, red and gold leaves dancing in the draft. Cruising along Ocean Drive in Newport, RI in a bright red Fiat Spyder convertible as the surf crashes against the seawall, filling the air with salty mist. Driving across the great plains in a gray Volvo 144 toward a new home in California. Racing the eighteen wheelers across the desert in a green Toyota Camry on the way to visit our grandchildren. The vehicle may not be as exciting as we get older but one thing remains constant … I can’ t do the long drive without Driving Music. No, I’m not talking about the old guy poking along in the fast lane with Henry Mancini playing softly in the background.

Oh, Susannah

Saturday morning, I went for my usual walk in the park and, as I often do, I put on my earbuds and set my smartphone mp3 player to shuffle all.   There are nearly 4,000 songs on my SD card, so it is certain that at sometime during my walk, I’ll get to reconnect with a long lost friend … an old favorite that I haven’t listened to in a long time.  The song that caught my ear Saturday was The Computer Age written and performed by Susannah McCorkle.   Odds are good you’ve never heard of her and I wouldn’t have either if it weren’t for the good old days of CD listening stations at Borders.   The CD I listened to way back then when was Hearts and Minds.   The intimacy of Susannah’s simple, jazzy style appealed to me instantly, so I bought the CD.

Like Wine

For all the music I’ve posted here over the six years Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog s been in existence, it surprises me that I’ve never posted a song by Daryl Hall and John Oates, named by Billboard as the most successful duo of the rock era..   The group was formed by Daryl Hohl and John Oates in 1969, although they wouldn’t achieve commercial success until 1976 with Sara Smile.   The duo never wanted to be known as Hall and Oates, even though that is the name that stuck.  When I went online looking for a song to post, I came across She’s Gone, a song that was Number one in 1974.  I didn’t remember that the version by Hall and Oates (sorry, its just a pain to put in the John and the Daryl) on their second album, Abandoned Luncheonette, wasn’t a hit.  The hit was a version by Tavares which you can hear here.   I like Hall and Oates’ version better … it was re-released in 1976 … and I like the version recorded in 2008 by a more mature John and Daryl better than the original.  Like Wine, they’ve gotten better with age.

Enjoy.

 

Christmas Carols, Two

Last week, in Favorite Christmas Songs #1, I posted Sarah McClachlan’s Winter Song. Sarah may not know it … and certainly doesn’t care … but very few modern Christmas songs make it to Older Eyes Favorite Christmas Song list. I was, after all, raised by a music-loving Mom on the classic Christmas songs. Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and I’ll be Home for Christmas. Dean Martin’s Let It Snow. Judy Garland’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Burl Ives’ Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. Songs that are so attached to the original performers that covers by other artists sound false, no matter how well they’re done. Then there’s this:

On Time

I have several friends who don’t wear wrist watches.  At least one does so as a sign that he is not a slave to time, something he also proves by being late for meetings.   Back before the days of mobile devices, it used to bug me slightly when he’d ask me what time it was.  If you want to know what time it is, wear a freaking watch, I’d think, never saying it, of course, because that’s how you lose friends.  And future business partners.  Of course, in these days where the time, date and your exact location are available on your smartphone, boycotting wrist watches is a much less meaningful symbol that time doesn’t matter.   Being late still works, however.  The subject of time reminds me of an old Chicago song I loved back in my semi-hippie days, when I was a long-haired, mod-suit and watch wearing defense industry engineer with a peace sign in my rear window.

Moondance

courtesy wikipedia

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed on Facebook that Saturday night’s moon would be a so-called supermoon.   Properly called a perigee moon, these occurs when the phase of the moon is full while the moon is near it’s closest position to the earth, or perigee.  According to NASA Science, the perigee moon is 14% larger and 30% brighter than your average full moon but without a side-by-side comparison, it is hard to tell the difference.  Yes, that’s a scientific, clinical description and it doesn’t prevent people from saying things like, Oh my God, that is the biggest moon I’ve ever seen! particularly if they are observing the moonrise.  For reasons not completely understood, the moon looks particularly large as it’s rising from the horizon.  This ends the scientific portion of this post.  When I read about a supermoon, I am once again that excited kid with his Edmund Scientific reflector telescope rushing out to the hayfield.   When the moon rises full, I am the wolf baying, Owooo, owooo at the sky, the young romantic recalling favorite moon songs and favorite moon scenes from the movies.

Friday Favorites 5/30/2014

There’s an old saying … When I Got Busy, I Got Better.  I can’t speak to the universal truth of that but I will attest to the fact that most times that I get busy, I feel better.   I got all my work done in the morning yesterday, made myself a tuna sandwich for lunch, then took a short nap on the lounge chair on the patio.  These days, I accept that at my age, a nap can give me the energy to have a more productive day, a notion I would have rejected ten years ago.   It works, really … afterward, I ran a bunch of errands then took a 2.79 mile walk in the park.  Yes.  Exactly 2.79 according to the Runkeeper app on my Samsung smartphone.  Ain’t technology wonderful.

Friday Favorites 4/25/2014

I have a pretty good ear for music.  When a song by an artist I know comes on the radio, I usually know the artist within a few bars although it may take me a few minutes to come up with the name.  Those of you with Younger Eyes are probably saying, That’s nonsense, Bud.  If you don’t know the name, you don’t know the artist.  Those of you with Older Eyes like mine know just what I mean … I can see the artist in my mind’s eye, maybe come up with an initial and the name is dancing tantalizingly on the tip of my tongue.  There are several options at this point: if I’m in the car and the song is on Sirius XM radio, push the Display button until the Artist shows up;  I can Google the title of the song (not while I’m driving, Younger Eyes); or wait while my memory rummages through my brain cells, which these days seems to work like a very large file alphabetical file cabinet.  Modern science suggests that seniors should look up answers instead of racking their brains because the latter practices not remembering … but I still like to prove to myself that the old filing system still works sometimes.