Monday, April 29, 2019

Truth Serum






Of course I like to fancy myself someone who deals in truth. The fact is, I spend a lot of time cobbling fantasy and fiction with autobiography. I should mention, here and now, that any fact is vulnerable in the sake of rhyme!

Why on earth does it continue to surprise me when folks show solicitude in response to my stories of gore and violence, not to mention shock and surprise when I boast of romantic adventure and conquest?

Now that I have begun wasting time placing my head onto bodies other than my own, I seem to have compounded the problem, if, indeed, it is a problem.

My life is such a bizarre comic book tapestry of unlikely events that it's really hard to be of much assistance in looking for authenticity.

Here are a few hints:

If you see a snapshot of me with Stirling Moss, Gene Vincent, Bob Buckhorn, Brenda Lee, Don Garlits, Roy Rogers or Elvis- it's probably legit. If you see me at the table for the last supper or in the arms of Brigitte Bardot- well, sir, I've probably been into the Chartreuse and the Photoshop again.

If you should happen to read something about me playing a show at Lincoln Center or sleeping with the lighthouse keeper's wife somewhere around the northern tip of Scotland, or hanging around with Owsley, backstage at a Dead concert- yeah, those are real. If I'm being abducted by aliens or hosting Jesus- I'm almost definitely making that stuff up.

By the way, the lighthouse keeper's wife was in a separate bed and they were divorced.










Sunday, April 28, 2019

Breakin' In A Heart






Somehow I found myself in a Red Roof Inn on the outskirts of Casper, Wyoming. I should have known that the "kinky, friendly ghost with grandpa issues," was not on the level. Probably shouldn't have been so furtive describing myself as "a distinguished, ambidextrous intellectual, seeking wild humiliation and willing to pay dearly for it."

Didn't much matter by that point. She had my Prius and my American Express card and I didn't even have a broken heart. Or bus fare home.

If this stuff rhymed, I would have had a song or two. I've married for less. Several times!







Saturday, April 27, 2019

The Poet's Light






Things are different for me. Oh, I don't know a sonnet from a haiku, and I wouldn't know chanso if she picked me up for an Uber trip. I suppose I'm a poet, though. Shorthand for shiftless in some circles.

When I stood on the banks of that creek in Piedmont Park, and I saw all of the circles that made up my world, I knew as much as I was ever gonna know. As I sit here hunched over this keyboard, sharing my small treasures with you, I see that I'm the center of all of them. You are, too. No matter where you go.

Be still. Do you hear it? The frequency is love.



                                         

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Truth As I Remember It






Disregarding fundamentalist dribble regarding evolution and creation, most of what they taught me in school has turned out to be true. Pythagoras nailed that theorem about right triangles and taught us about musical tones. He knew that music held all the magic. He believed that each planet produced a particular tone according to its distance from the earth.

Is it any coincidence that Einstein is quoted, "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music,"?

Sadly, much of everything that I was taught in Sunday School has not held up so well. The meek haven't inherited much of anything, nearly as I can tell. The merciful in Yemen, Guatemala and Sri Lanka don't seem to be shown much mercy, here, lately.

Oh, I surely wish that I believed that God was on our side. Unfortunately, I've read about agent orange and smallpox blankets. I know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For there are these three things that endure: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.

I suppose I'm more a Pythagorean than a Luddite. More a heathen than an atheist.

I've always seen my life in music. I know where the magic is. I don't know everything about it- it's magic. I know about truth. I know about love.

If I were not a musician, I would probably be a physicist.











Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Humble Beginnings






What price pleasure?

Well, I've chewed tin foil and I've gone into love affairs that glowed with a radioactive warning. We're all looking for the secret, aren't we?

What, exactly, is the connection between pleasure and happiness? I've come to consider it in biological terms. I've tweaked it with chemistry. Here I sit describing it with third-rate philosophy.

When I make myself turn off cable news, only love makes sense.









Tuesday, April 23, 2019

It's Always Raining Somewhere






Advice is born in regret, I suppose. I'm not wise, but I surely know of a lot of things that I would do differently if I had an extra lap or two in life. No time is wasted and no love is trivial. Time is the most valuable gift you have. You have lots of it, but never enough. Never as much as you think you have.

What I wouldn't give for just a few minutes more with her.



                                        






Sunday, April 21, 2019

Keeping Track







We tend to turn our memories into good ones and I'll put mine up against anybody's. As much as I miss all the ones who have moved on, in one way or another, I cherish the time that I had with all of them.

You don't have to work to make good memories, you just have to let them happen.

We encourage little girls to play with dolls. They grow up to be mothers. Teachers. Nurses and doctors. Legislators who speak truth to power.

We encourage little boys to play with guns. They grow up to be soldiers. Corrupt politicians. Bank CEO's who will cheat for the last crumb.

Sexist? You bet. Thanks for noticing.





Friday, April 19, 2019

Six Below Zero In The Tropics






In training for happiness. Feels like I'm doing pretty well. I've got strings to break and friends I haven't even used yet. Now, don't go taking romance seriously. Looking back, that's where I frequently went wrong. Oh, it's important, alright. It's just nothing to get hung about. 

The secret to surviving a broken heart, if there is, in fact, a secret to surviving a broken heart, is to laugh right through it.

If this works for you, you might try it at your next funeral.



Tuesday, April 16, 2019

A Hippie's Heart






As most of the world comes together to mourn the loss of one of mankind's grand treasures, it is difficult to avoid thoughts of despair for our culture's future. Maybe most of us need more than one lifetime to learn the most simple lessons of love and service.

Grand temples and cathedrals symbolize the best of who we are.

Starving children and endless war remind us of the rest.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.




Monday, April 15, 2019

Ghost Writers In The Sky





Maybe I've seen too much. I have run out of excuses for unhappiness. Loss is the one concept that eludes my understanding. It occurs to me that without loss, there would be nothing "new" in my life.

  Ray Cummings wrote, "Time is what keeps everything from happening at once," and it rang so very true that the quote is frequently attributed to Einstein.

Well, sir, loss is what makes room for new love.

Feel free to quote me when I'm gone. Maybe they will decide that someone wise came up with it.


 

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Mining The Bliss






If this were the first time, I would just walk away. I sit here every day, or almost every day, and pour my heart out to anybody who will take the time to follow this propaganda trail. All I'm peddling here is peace and love. 

Let's face it, peace and love aren't really trending right now. Of course I'm happiest when I'm most unfashionable. You would think that I would be one happy, if outmoded, someone around here, and I suppose I am.

Two or three times a week I find myself throwing out what I've written, realizing that I have said the same thing several times over the years. 

Woe is me- rock'n'roll bit the dust.I have failed at romance. War is bad. It's women's turn. Whatever happened to the cowboys? The District of Columbia is filled with psychopaths. Blah, blah, blah ad nauseam.

If it weren't for the joy that comes with putting my head on the shoulders of folks with lives more interesting than mine, and cobbling together videos that don't make sense for my songs that make even less sense, I would storm right outta' here. 

Don't forget that peace and love stuff.




Saturday, April 13, 2019

The Next Dead Ones






We thought we were gonna live forever. So did all those ahead of us, the dead ones. As nearly as I can recall, I was okay as a kid. For a while. I wasn't good at being a teenager and it was downhill most of the way from there.

After several decades apart, my friend, Presley, asked me, "Are you happy? Are you really happy?"

Seemed insignificant at the time. I'm pretty sure I told her that I was. She took her life a little later. I suppose I've struggled with her query ever since.




Thursday, April 11, 2019

Jelly, Old Cars and Old Dogs






Would you rather die of a toothache or a broken heart? Why on earth do folks always begin pseudo-psychological banter with, " In a perfect world..."?

Pretty sure this is a perfect world. The only ones who would argue the point are arrogant enough to think that they are superior to your god. Dang!

Maybe I have taken myself too seriously. The voices in my head are lonely. All who wander are not lost. All who sing in my head and my heart are welcome.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war. I miss you, Peach.







Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Slippery Slopes






When I'm really happy, the pretty music plays in my head, and when I'm sad, even prettier music plays. I suppose you can see my dilemma here. Happy's better than sad, but I do love the pretty music, and the prettier, the better.

When I was a kid, I always played the slow songs, the sad ones, only to fill the gaps between the real rockers. I always tried to make song lists with only one or two slow ones in a set.

Nowadays, I don't play much. When I do, there aren't enough rockers to go 'round. Slow ones, sad ones? I got a million of 'em.




                                       


Sunday, April 7, 2019

Bombs Away






There's never enough time until you have too much of it. I've got songs backed up and plays unfinished. I'm beginning to think my masterpiece won't get painted. Is it the green bananas that I shouldn't buy or the brown acid?

On a good day I'm unsure whether I'm a gentleman of leisure or a common bum. My wardrobe indicates the latter. Of course if I pull on my velvet, formal slippers and drizzle the Red Bush on my ice cream while I wax poetic on romance, I might pass myself off as an eccentric sonneteer.

I'm left with mostly good intentions.




Saturday, April 6, 2019

Paste Eaters






The secret is to capture the joy that fills lovers' hearts. Memories are the building blocks of any life worth living. Marriage, it seems to me, is an attempt to catch the magic and hold on to it. Not to brag, but I'm sorta' an authority on the subject. Oh, I'm not good at it. I've just had some experience.

To say that I've been reckless in love is to understate the obvious. What I peddled as good intentions was often romantic delusion. Fortunately, amoré abandoned me with age.

All my memories are beautiful. I wouldn't change a thing, if I could. Love means more to me than ever. Here's to love.










Thursday, April 4, 2019

Ladies' Choice






So, tell me- are you the mud and water and those few common chemicals off the shelf, or are you some divine blend of exquisite spiritual magic from a greater power? I'm more than a little suspicious of anybody who answers with authority and alacrity.

For me, the joy and the mystery are so intertwined that I don't search for truth. Oh, I'm thrilled with revelation. Every epiphany is an excuse for celebration. I'm most content, though, flat on my back, watching stars twinkle.

I doubt destiny.


 

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Vulnerable Assets






Well, sir, I've been bossed and I've been the boss. I wasn't designed for either role. I do what I want and I hope that you do, too. Seems to me that the age of information has shown us all a little too much about our institutions.

Once you know that a church leader has taken the side of a pedophile over a child, it's hard to be respectful. 

Don't even start me ranting about our government. There was a day when I thought that, at least, our government was better than the others. Those days are well behind us.

In history and civics classes I learned about the evil anarchists. I've grown old and ended up an anarchist and, funny enough, I don't feel evil at all.







Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Wolf Patrol





To you, maybe, it's just another bumper sticker. One more t-shirt. A little more graffiti. If the message gets by my filters, it just may be the communiqué that I have been waiting for. Today I ran across the note, "You are exactly as happy as you choose to be."

Do I need to tell you that I've been grinning like a mule eating briars ever since?

Wisdom hides. Be still. Open your heart.







Monday, April 1, 2019

Perish The Thought- Hell, Perish Them All






Take it from the King of Angst,"There's nothing to get hung about." You're gonna live for awhile, then you're not. While you're alive, you're going to suffer. Love's gonna come and love's gonna go. That's just the way it is.

Meantime, you might as well laugh and you might as well listen to pretty music. If you don't live near any fancy museums, chances are you've got sunsets and flowers. Don't pay any attention to anyone who describes them as weeds.

We all want to be loved. Be yourself. If they don't love you, they don't love you. You can't make them love you. Do the loving. After all, that's the fun part.

Assuming that time only runs in one direction, we're all headed for an end. Laugh really hard while you wait. Listen to Fats Domino while you're laughing. Keep in mind that they're all naked under those outfits. Every single one of them. Now, that's hilarious.