Before and after... I can't tell who is or isn't in the after vid but I like them, The Marmalade (Scottish) regardless.
I was thinking back to around this time, 1968. Viet Nam war was raging. I was entering my teens. I didn't know about the world. Rode my bike in summer, a sled, or skates in winter lol, Did a little fishing both seasons. But it's been a war of some sort all my life.
In '68 or so I was gifted a newer type of tiny battery-powered radio with transistors. Nearby was an empty house with a basketball hoop where I entertained myself by shooting baskets and listening to music like this. A lot of solitary time then (before) and now (after). The US was/is still fighting natives but on a more covert and subtle battlefield. Anyway, I'm still figuring it out now while a different kind of war begins to boil.
Before, I was vaguely aware. I saw it nightly on the news but the horrors and fears those a few years older than me were facing with the war and draft, I didn't get. I didn't have to go but my uncles did. I had my own survival and identity issues. It took a while to figure out that booze and drugs weren't helpful survival and success tools. (whatever success is?) When my kids were graduating I had to fight off the predatory military recruiters. The recruiters would get surly and threatening with me on the phone because I wasn't willing to turn my boys over to fight some Bush war over oil, fake WMD's and their other shitty lies. FAWK NO! My younger cousins went and came back like my Nam uncles, fuked in the heart and head.
I'm kind of in between the generations in my family; about 10 years younger than my uncles and about 10 years older than my cousins
Someone here was saying the political climate might swing the other way from what we're looking at now. I hope it does. I'd be fine without seeing a hot civil war or ww3 in my lifetime. But, it's threatening to boil over now. My own personal anger and vicious thoughts disturb me at times too. I'm not a psycho or lunatic like I'm seeing pop up more and more often. I'm thinking perhaps I may slip through the cracks of war like "before" when I was young and now again "after" where I lived the majority of my life and before it's checkout time and the game's over.
The changing of sunlight to moonlight
Reflections of my life Oh, how they fill my eyes
The greetings of people in trouble Reflections of my life Oh, how they fill my eyes
Oh, my sorrows Sad tomorrows Take me back to my own home
Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying) Feel I'm dying, dying Take me back to my own home
I'm changing, arranging I'm changing I'm changing everything Everything around me
The world is
A bad place A bad place A terrible place to live Oh, but I don't want to die
Oh, my sorrows Sad tomorrows Take me back to my own home
Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying) Feel I'm dying, dying Take me back to my own home
Oh, my sorrows Sad tomorrows Take me back to my own home
Man. When I was a kid, we’d pack up the car, and drive to Philly every summer. We’d stay a couple days and then grab a bunch our Philly cousins and go to Wildwood NJ, get a bungalow and do the beach for a week. Probably about ’69 or ‘70, everything was different. In an excellent way really, for a 9 or 10 year old. There were hippies EVERYWHERE! It was awesome. There were men on the boardwalk with leather shoulder bags wearing cutoff jean shorts. It was a ballsy move. It was a hairy situation. You might even say it was nutty! (Oh, D. You’re hilarious!). They were walking around holding hands and nobody said anything. Because nobody cared what anyone else did! one evening everyone was out on the boardwalk, except for my great grandma who was crocheting and watching the crappy TV, when the cops pounded on the door and demanded entry because they smelled pot. They looked around, and realized…great grandma was mad as a hornet when we got back.
That year, I can’t really remember the music. For some reason I keep hearing the Zombies. Within a year or two, there was so much anger. For me the music reflected that. Anytime I hear Ohio, it guts me. One year it was ‘Hair’ and Jesus Christ Superstar’ and general happiness. My cousin was drafted. He mad it home.
WAR! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!
And next on the Old man channel, A jazz song written by Hoagy Carmicheal in the era/genre called Hot Music or Hot Jazz.
Stardust
Before:
Hoagy wrote the music and Mitchell Parish (Lithuanian) wrote the lyrics. The song has been covered by more than 1500 artists. As you may know, Jazz was the creation of Black artists. The song, IMO, has some disturbingly "Vanilla" interpretations. Here's an example from the 1961 "Ford Show".
FYI I used a piece of stop/start code to isolate this video segment. . First click the "embed" icon button below the youtube video and isolate and copy the quoted section. Then convert to seconds the start and stop times. copy the amended code and paste it into the "add a video" pop-up window here on this site. If you want to use a piece of a longer clip on here, fiddle around with the code doing it a few times and you'll figure it out.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/F_mhUNESemU?start=369&end=560Hoagy wrote the song in 1927 which is now in the category of "Timeless Classics". Neither my mother nor I was born yet (obviously) and the tune is approaching 100 years old. Hoagy wrote a number of classics including "Georgia On My Mind" and a favorite of piano noodlers "Heart and Soul", Hogland was also an actor and an attorney(?).
IMO, many of the artist's interpretations of his hits were better than the original which is common among songwriters.
Up next (After) is Willie Nelson performing Stardust about 51 years after Hoagy wrote it. Willie is a legendary songwriter in his own right having written the Patsey Cline classic "Crazy", The Elvis cover of "You Were Always on my Mind" and one of my favorites "Nightlife". I didn't care for much of his country outlaw music but that's me. Way back I entered a song into a songwriter contest judged by Willie and his band (my first attempt as a songwriter) coming in as first runner up. Willie is also a hellified guitarist. Willie got his covid vaccination at age 87 in Texas.
Thanks for letting me bore you lol!