Where The Hipsters Go To Die

When Cary Grant grew old and died it began to dawn on me that mortality wasn't just for somebody else's grandpa. I haven't used up my quota of fun, love, rock'n'roll. The planet doesn't need me but there are a few critters who do. I have a job, too. Boys and girls, I'm here to remind you to love and love hard. My purpose is to make sure that you remember to enjoy every moment.

Can I Go Now?

Just coming in from a Solidarity meeting. Great excuse for my left leaning, big hearted pals to sit around and dream of the meek inheriting the earth. These are not dumb folks. My friends are hard working, fair minded people who want to make the world a better place.

Old hippies like me need to be reminded that the struggle never ends and the battle goes on forever. I've gone a few more laps than most of them. Well, okay- a lot more laps. Don't ever fight with anything other than love. Use what you've got.

Dean and Jerry

As a kid when I learned that Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were breaking up as a team, I was devastated. In my nine year old mind it was ultimate tragedy, total loss.

Most of us kids assumed that Dean was being mean to Jerry. I'm guessing now that lots of our moms were glad to see Dino dumping the jerk.

Watching the old clips of their comedy act changes my perspective. I couldn't be a bigger Dean Martin fan. The fanfare for Jerry is the only thing that keeps me from being an out and out Francophile.

Good guy/bad guy- be careful. Read Howard Zinn.

Great Big Ones

Odd, isn't it, how many versions of truth exist? Everybody needs to be right. Nobody wants to be the bad guy. That dark side of the heart is to be denied, if possible. Presidential debates are to remind us of their presence. Rock'n'roll soothes the soul. Let's rock.

Kids Five Cents

Before we left Birmingham when I was six years old, I could walk to the West End Theater two blocks away to see second run movies. My cousin, Jimmy, and I were pretty sure that we would eventually see a naked woman on the big screen. Of course we did but that was a almost a decade later when Brigitte Bardot films washed up on America's shore. 

In Tampa I grew up two blocks down from the Palma Ceia Theater. Was I a regular? Let's just say that I sat through The Rose Tattoo seven times in a week. I still have no idea what that movie is about. I'm pretty sure that it's at least a little bit naughty even if there are no naked women.

Everything that I know and believe is shaped a bit by those movie houses with a healthy dose, or unhealthy dose, of Sunday school mixed in.

I do know enough to know that I don't know much. I believe in love. I don't believe in war.

Last Minute Bloomers

By the time that I began releasing records under my own name I had been in the rock'n'roll trenches for decades. Critics often used the term, late bloomer, in describing my efforts. That was more than twenty years ago.

I'm just beginning to learn my craft. I'm more a slow learner than a late bloomer. Sometimes I stray but I'm always back to this. This is home. This is truth. This is love. Rock'n'roll will outlive me. It outlived Alan Freed and Dick Clark.

Blew A Hole In My Heart

Hole in my pocket, hole in my heart. Everybody writes history but the ones with the jack get their's published. Is sand just glass waiting to be converted or vice versa?

Tribes keep us from feeling lonely, I suppose. They provide us with a sense of community. All I ever wanted was to be in the band. Let's face it- I'm a solo act. All the pretty melodies hide behind lonely. All the beautiful poems.

Love is bigger than romance, grander.