Your Winter Or Ours?

How much time do we waste worrying about the way other folks do things? First of all, who cares?

Birds sing and creeks babble. Why would I want to listen to some blowhard preacher or politician tell me what to do? What's right and what's wrong?

Turns out that I'm an even slower learner than I thought.

Most of my heroes screwed up from time to time. In fact I'll bet they screwed up regularly. That's alright. Stick with love. You'll do okay.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUeb6jYbEbI&t=1s

 

Only Slightly Deficient

By the time I got to Paris, Man Ray was gone. Kiki, too. Long gone. Of course it's a beautiful city, just not the magic that I dream of.

Key West is certainly a gem. A tropical paradise, indeed. Plenty of debauchery to go around and the fun never stops. I missed the days before waiters could no longer afford rent and Mercedes outnumbered rusty bikes, though.

I love New York and the place has always been good to me. I never saw Willie at the Polo Grounds, however, and I never witnessed a ticker tape parade.

Oh, I could go on and on about San Francisco or London or New Orleans. You know- a day late, a dollar short. Don't get me started about Nashville.

Here I am, finally, at the centre of the universe. Portland, Dorset hasn't happened yet. Probably never will. Certainly not in my lifetime it won't. Fine!

Best weather in the UK. Ha! If you don't mind a little breeze that will take your laundry away. In other words, that's a low bar, meteorologically speaking. Nobody locks his bicycle, though, and someone stumbles across a big dinosaur bone on the beach from time to time. The place seems short on the debauchery front, so we manufacture our own.

The magic? I found it.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3ZfnyVP6aU
 

New Ones and Old Ones

Bing had to make way for Sinatra just like ol' blue eyes had to vacate the premises for Elvis. Old dogs get moved out for puppies. Yeah, it's a sad fact of life, especially if you're an old dog.

The world doesn't really care what I think about AI. The fact that I find most new cars ugly isn't going to rattle the automobile industry. Wealth inequality? What's new?

My opinions matter. They matter to me. They are as relevant as the ones that I held as a young man.

Turns out, the ones that have stayed the same are the only ones that matter. Play fair, love hard.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yj4FShE6VA

 

The Stars Got In My Eyes

Sometimes I get weary of boasting about my quality of life. I'm guessing that if you're back reading this drivel, you've had a bellyful, yourself.

If I don't run short of my Crest toothpaste stash, I've got enough of everything that I could possibly want or need to last the rest of my days.

While I've never learned to accept the suffering in this world, I have figured out how to embrace the beauty and the love in front of me.

I've always got one eye on the stars above me and the better part of my mind in the gutter. I have figured out that there's nothing to figure out. Loving's not at all like water skiing. You don't have to learn anything or practice. Just love.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsYAd1D0y8Q

 

Don't Let Your Coffee Get Cold

It's hard to take any of it seriously, isn't it? Grownups with nuclear weapons waving their holy books, threatening annihilation of civilisations. If one of these lunatics drops the big one and ends it all, so be it. There really is nothing that I can do about any of it.

None of my worrying, and I've done plenty, has ever prevented anything.

Now, of course, worry and dread and fear don't always get permission before moving in. I just remind myself of my good luck, think about the life I've had, and celebrate the fact that I have my own hair and teeth.

The fact that I'm here in Dorset with Kate and Vera and that they put up with me is one fine dream, and if it is a dream, it's a doozie. I wish this kind of paradise for everyone.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVEecogOHw

 

Too Old To Cut The Mustard, Young Enough To Lick The Jar

What I haven't seen at this point hardly matters. I haven't been everywhere, boy, and I surely haven't seen everything. Doesn't matter. It's a perfect world when you know it is and you're lucky when you know you are.

I've always shown up in the Key Wests of the world just in time to be told that I should have seen it before. I always wanted to live in Paris, but the Paris of 1930.

Not this time, buddy. Here I am at the centre of the universe, not a developer in sight. I look out my window and there's the English Channel. Sweetest people in the world. Best dogs you can imagine and they're welcome in every establishment. Plenty of cats for you other folks, too, and they're feisty as all get-out.

Oh, I could spend hours and ink telling you about Kate, but I believe I've made that point. I wish for you all the love and all the fortune that I've known. I love you all.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVEecogOHw

 

"Escape Into The Madness" or "So Long, Suckers"

It's past time to say anything and everything that I've ever wanted to say. There's really no sign that time is running out other than the calendar, the clock.

The concept of Eden or heaven or some utopian fantasy is, more or less, a constant for me. The details bend, stretch and shrink, but the big picture stays pretty much true to form- everybody's kind, everybody's happy. Plenty of four-legged and feathered citizens, too, and they seem to be happy as well. Oh, everybody's naked, too. They know all about the apple and the snake, so everybody's aware that it's naughty. Nobody feels guilty about naughty.

Yeah, there's plenty of banana pudding to go 'round and the idea of someone's net worth is just silly. Of course it's silly here and now, too, but you wouldn't know it.

Politics exist only to help keep us on the same side of the road and any suggestion of spending any of our resources on war is ludicrous. Folks are free, of course, to worship any deity, creature or planet that they choose as long as they respect everyone else's right to do the same. Or not.

Now, I can see that this daydreaming casts me as something of an anarchist. I've been called worse.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqSh77aPSb8

 

Loose Change, Loose Morals

It occurs to me that every breath is different from the one before. Under a microscope each grain of sand is a completely unique, fascinating work of art, exquisite in its originality. Ants enslave aphids and we have no idea of the scale of the universe, this one or any other.

Yet, I met Elvis. I've known all these dogs. I'll have dinner with Kate again.

If this isn't nice, what is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO2V1EYAH-g

 

Ambition Has Always Been So Overrated

 

Oh, I live a lazy man's life. Folks back home ask if I've retired. From what? I haven't played since  a house concert in Tampa, next to last visit. I picked up a guitar this morning. Felt about as familiar as if I had fondled an oboe.

Now, for whatever reason, I'm thinking about writing a book. Actually, I've had this story idea for several years- I've just run out of excuses to keep from writing.

Of course I'm aware that selling a book, never a walk in the park, is close to impossible these days. Do you suppose that people read? 

Maybe if I keep right still, this, too, will pass.

Why would anybody mess with paradise?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_XN27KTnHg

That's How They All Wind Up

Another one of those stories that I've told you a hundred times- my mom took me to the armory in Tampa to see The Biggest Rock'n'Roll Show of '56. Biggest event in my nine year old life!

Bo Diddley. Big Joe Turner. The Drifters, who happened to bring along Clyde McPhatter, home on leave in his army uniform. LaVern Baker. Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. The Platters. The Teen Queens. Great goodness! The headliner was Bill Haley and the Comets.

Seems odd now, somehow. His star began losing some measure of luster way back. I'll never know why. He was absolutely among the first to marry hillbilly music with rhythm and blues. Some of the first and wildest riots blamed on the evil of rock'n'roll occurred at Bill Haley concerts. All over the world!

Rock Around The Clock. Shake, Rattle and Roll. R-O-C-K. Razzle Dazzle. See Ya Later, Alligator, fercrissakes!

The Comets were the perfect rock'n'roll band. Franny Beecher was arguably the first rock'n'roll guitar hero. Marshall Lytle, flat on his back holding his bass fiddle in the air with his feet, ripped the seat out of his pants every night before PJ Proby even thought about leaving Texas. If a riot had broken out in Tampa, I would have been right there!

By 1970 the old guys were nostalgia acts. When Duckbutter was offered a slot on Richard Nader's first revival tour with the task of backing Gene Vincent, The Coasters and Chuck Berry, on a bill that included Bo Diddley and Bill Haley & the Comets, I was back in that rock'n'roll heaven that I remembered from 1956.

There were a few disappointments, but there were mostly lifetime memories stacking up for those few days. 

One of the memories that I hadn't thought much about in years, until today, was a conversation that I had with Bill Haley in the dressing room at Curtis Hixon in Tampa. He was aware that his name didn't spark the wild emotion that some of the stars did. Looking back, he was probably losing a step or two mentally and drinking way too much regularly. The music was great. Rudy Pompilli, the great saxist, was the only original Comet in the group. I think Mr. Haley knew that, somehow, his place in the history books hadn't been reserved. Not properly. He passed away about five years later. 

Let me add this to the history books- Best Rock'n'Roll hairdo of all-time. The first artist to really put the country music and the swing stuff in the mix with the rhythm and blues to make what we still call rock'n'roll.

Rock around the clock, indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1cKgOvbYgM

 

Don't Disappoint Me

So often I feel like Charlie trying to kick the football that Lucy's holding. I fell, totally, for the peace and love thing. I find myself hopeful every time any peace agreement is announced. 

Oh, I'm not complaining, not really.

Lose hope and you're done, I suppose.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7dNU_8myA

 

Blimey! Now What?

Everything's perfect except that suffering can't be explained. Does that mean that everything is not perfect, or just that I don't understand. At least I know that I'm just along for the ride.

I'll try to do better with whatever time I have left. I'm a slow learner, a good eater and I have intentions, good and bad. The time I've wasted is the best time I've spent.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl5xCHW1xWw

 

Good A Time As Any

Never seen a "bad dog" that didn't have an excuse. People? Well, sir, that's a different story. I know that I'm not supposed to judge but I see good guys and bad guys wherever I look.

There was a time when it was subtle, for me, at least.

This may be as good an opportunity as any to withdraw a bit. If I ever had anything important to say, I've said it. Probably more than once. Way more. If you need me, you know where to find me.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fd1R-VHN60 

 

King of the Anarchists

Ever notice that when you're not anxious, anxiety seems so out of fashion? When you're happy, depression  is such an obvious waste of time and energy.

First thing you know, ol' dread and distress are knocking at the door.

If you're lucky, it's nothing that a Fats Domino record won't fix.

Use your love wisely. Just kidding. Slop it all over creation. There's plenty more where that came from.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war. Do it for Murray.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiRQt4vzKAI

 

All The Lessons, All The Dogs

Certainly no-one has ever loved his black dogs more than I have. My black cats have brought me more than my share of good fortune, too.

I don't have to be reminded of every good thing that has happened to me.

Sometimes the blues come to call, though, seldom with an invitation.

As my pal, Ed Brown, explained to the man, " Doc, I feel like my dog died and I don't have a dog."

If you're lucky you can just wait them out.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpl49IL4GjU

 

The Good Ones

All my life I've worried about the ride ending. Leaving gas in the tank of the car traded-in. I've saved 

t shirts to keep from wearing them out till I outgrew them. I've even saved the biggest, most perfect banana until it turned brown.

Now, it's too late to be cheated, past any chance of leaving a good looking corpse.

I don't have to wear pants, speak softly or show up, pretending to like my work.

If I tell you something now, I probably mean it.

Funny, nothing's much changed.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9emZrJuIJs

 

Your Battles

Once I ever knew that I was a pacifist, I began to wonder just how I would ever deal with an enemy on the shores of "my country." Well, sir, here we are. The fact that I'm living in another country keeps me relatively calm but it certainly doesn't provide any real measure of peace of mind. Right wing, xenophobic, psychopathic, opportunistic narcissists are coming into their own here, too.

Boris Johnson is to Donald Trump as Billy Fury was to Elvis. Now, Nigel Farage is so unpleasant in every way that if I had not personally watched the USA skid to this level of ignominy, no one could convince me that he might very well end up as prime minister.

Oh, I can still vote in the States, and I will. I want, more than ever, environmental protection, fair, free elections, and good healthcare. I long for a better tax system and topnotch education available to everybody. I'm hoping that legislation and law enforcement will soon deal with the immigration problems and gun control that have multiplied for profit. I'm waiting for a legal system that is blind to status and wealth and justice served for offenders focusing on rehabilitation. Please bring back science and competence. A fine bonus would be a government that tells us the truth. All of us. All of the truth.

Yeah, that's my list. Somehow, I always seem to get what I wish for. I may be pushing it this time.

I've lived through sack dresses and Edsels. I remember pet rocks and Khrushchev. 

On Sunday afternoons in Tampa, WALT radio, "1110, My Friend,"would have a Battle of the Crooners. Listeners could call and vote for their favourite. I would dial over and over to register votes for Elvis. On some weird, sad Sundays Pat Boone would win and I would be sure that the world was ending. It didn't.

I realize that now we're dealing with world peace, divided families, hantavirus, terrorism and just pure meanness. Love may have limits and shortcomings but it beats stealth bombers, drones and aircraft carriers.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLr-4W9Nq3Q

 

Reach For The Sky

Now, I don't have any trouble imagining the guy who came up with the concept of "money." It's even easier to picture the first wave of followers. Give 'em a few coins, bills, beads- whatever you got. In God we trust!

At this point, the next step, that's where the mystery begins for me. How do the ones with nothing, (that's us!), get suckered into this scheme?

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Keep your nose to the grindstone. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, fercrissakes!

How many of today's trendy billionaires started with nothing and worked their way up through the system?

As usual, asking for a friend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4loLXZutaiM

 

Above Ground

History will certainly not be looking back on these days as anyone's Golden Age. Fortunately, there is always magic in the ether. Don't scroll through social media, searching for today's breach of sanity; listen to the birds sing. Pet a dog. Eat ice cream.

Make sure that the memories that you're making will be good for tomorrow's flashbacks.

If I had any idea of how much time I was going  to spend reminiscing, I would have paid more attention.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBpu12m9sEk
 

Between Wars

The measure of the difference between a good guy and a bad guy is small by my estimation. Why not push it? Overtip. Apologise right away. Pet every dog and smile at every stranger. Oh, they'll make fun of you. If you're American, think Mr. Rogers.

Now, I know that this is a serious case of "do as I say, not as I do." I've got good intentions, though. I've got bad ones, too, but that's another blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcVZZ-ocYJ8