More fan commentary on music by the pro's

First, when Mike says he’s tickled about the response we’ve gotten here at “The Porch” from King Harvest, that goes for me too. What a nice thing to do.

Time passes...oh boy, might as well enjoy it

From Cousin Mike…

“Many of the acts that we admire would be old, gravelly and scraggly, like the drummer on this cable show. I heard a new Bob Segar song the other day and you can definately hear some age in his voice.”

True enough, and it is kind of a shock when you detect that in a voice, or see a recent photo or video of someone we listened to in our teen years. It’s as if, “How in the world could those guys be the same ones I used to hear on WHB or KUDL-AM…and still hear from time to time on KCMO-FM, KCFX, or KBLV? (Pardon my five local radio references, a.k.a. shameless plugs.) What happened?”

It’s like you mentioned on your blog when you turned 50, that you didn’t feel all that different. That, and something I heard in a sermon by one of my pastors once. He observed that your spirit doesn’t age (which could also explain why some guys get into trouble when they attempt some stunt they used to be able to do, but their body can no longer handle. Intellectually, they should know better. But deep inside, it just doesn’t seem like things could have changed that much.)

On occasion I’ll tune across our public television station and watch part of a rock concert. Something like Austin City Limits, but the one in particular I’m thinking of was another show…a name I don’t recall at the moment. Anyway, a year or two ago, I saw part of a festival of some sort, too many big names to be one band on tour with one other opening act. After a few notes got my attention – oh yeah I recognize the song. That’s really Joe Walsh? Still sounds great, but how can I put this kindly…um, obviously some time had passed.

I’ll mention a few other examples. The Rolling Stones - all in their 60’s, though one member of that band might be 70 by now. I *think* Eric Clapton is 60, but I’d have to check that. Sir Paul McCartney is either 64 or 65, the last I heard. Richard Wright passed away on September 15th, at the age of 65. He was one of the founders of Pink Floyd (I know Mike, not one of your favorite bands).

(As an aside, I also like a lot of 1980's music; so a lot of this isn't as obvious with the younger bands. Not yet, anyway.)

I guess the only point here is that we’re oblivious to time passing until some event or bit of news actually catches our attention. We open our eyes a bit and say, “Oh! Really?” No big revelation, that; it’s the same old story.

“So teach us to number our days…” (Psalm 90:12)

The Band

Mike continues...

“Levon Helm! He's the drummer for The Band and he's the drummer on my cable show!”

Yes, when I think of The Band, three names pop into my mind; Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, and Rick Danko. I had to look up on Wikipedia to find the other two names from their late ‘60s, early ‘70s lineup, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson.

I clicked on the link and enjoyed watching the "King Harvest Has Surely Come" video. I can’t say for certain that I recall hearing that song. It kind of rings a bell, well, the title does anyway. I didn’t have that album.

Of course I had to watch the video of my favorite song of theirs, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. This was from a live concert, I think it was “The Last Waltz”; the studio version was released in 1969.

I know I have only a few regular readers here, and some of you might only be familiar with Joan Baez’s cover version of that song. Pretty enough song in it’s own way, but as a kid I thought it was strange that this gal would sing a guy’s part “Virgil Caine is my name…”, and say things like “…I’m a working man” (actually “…I will work this land” in the original). Not until I heard the original by The Band did I realize what an amazing song it was. If you haven’t heard it by The Band, then you haven’t heard it. I invite you to take a few minutes and treat yourself here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38JpAMG65Dg

Since I still had Wikipedia open (my research on the other members of The Band), I clicked on their “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” article. Here’s an excerpt from a quote by Rolling Stone Magazine reviewer Ralph J. Gleason, describing the impact of the song on listeners…

“Nothing I have read … has brought home the overwhelming human sense of history that this song does…It's a remarkable song, the rhythmic structure, the voice of Levon and the bass line with the drum accents and then the heavy close harmony of Levon, Richard and Rick in the theme, make it seem impossible that this isn't some traditional material handed down from father to son straight from that winter of 1865 to today. It has that ring of truth and the whole aura of authenticity."

That pretty much describes it, I think. Further down the article is another interesting comment by Band member Robbie Robertson:

"At some point [the concept] blurted out to me. Then I went and I did some research and I wrote the lyrics to the song." Robertson continued, "When I first went down South, I remember that a quite common expression would be, 'Well don't worry, the South's gonna rise again.' At one point when I heard it I thought it was kind of a funny statement and then I heard it another time and I was really touched by it. I thought, 'God, because I keep hearing this, there's pain here, there is a sadness here.' In Americana land, it's a kind of a beautiful sadness."

Back to the videos. What I find interesting is that in both of them, there isn’t a whole lot of showmanship. By that I mean there’s not people running around jumping on the stage, no pyrotechnics, no big overblown laser light shows. Just five talented performers, putting their efforts into their music. I like that.

“Did I just win "Six Degrees of King Harvest"?”

Yes Mike, and here it is. Your gift is the permission to participate in the dance. It’s your choice, whether to dance outside or more privately inside, with the moonlight streaming through the window. And you don’t have to wait until the night of a full moon, just as long as “the moon is big and bright”.

Okay, I made mention of 1969 earlier. Hmmm...maybe I ought to tackle that year next for a music list. Right off the bat I recall a whole lot of change...from Jay and the Americans "This Magic Moment" early on, up to Led Zeppelin's first album by the end of the year.

I do try to keep some variety in my posts here. But I gotta admit, I've been enjoying this music theme.