Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, II

If there’s a rock ‘n’ roll heaven, well you know they’ve got a hell of a band.

                                                                        The Righteous Brothers

            Just a couple of days ago, I posted my reflections on some of the wonderful musicians we have lost this year.  The morning after that post, and my linking it to Facebook and Twitter, my friend Dan Doughty “liked” my tweet.  The moment I read Dan’s name, I knew I had forgotten to write about Glenn Frey who died January 18.  Dan is a huge Eagles fan, and Glenn was one of the founding members of that group.  Glenn’s death occurred just near the death of David Bowie, so was not given all that much media attention, but his music also touched many.

            I don’t think you could have been a teenager in the 1970s without hearing Eagles music, whether you liked it or not, and I really liked it.  The Eagles Their Greatest Hits album, which I still have in vinyl, became the highest selling album of the twentieth century when it was released in 1976.  Every song was a gem – “Take It Easy,” “Witchy Woman,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Already Gone,” “Desperado,” “One of These Nights,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Take It to the Limit,” “Peaceful, Easy Feeling,” and “Best of My Love.”  In high school and college you could put this album on and sing to every last song.

            Late that same year, the  group released their biggest album, “Hotel California,” with that remarkable title track and “New Kid in Town.”  The album was an important part of the soundtrack to my senior year in high school.  Driving my old Buick LeSabre to and from work or school, I loved hearing an Eagles song play on WAKX, big wax.

            Glenn Frey wrote many of the songs, with other members of the group and was lead singer on “Take It Easy,” “Peaceful, Easy Feeling,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Already Gone,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” and “New Kid in Town.”  The songs ranged from a celebration of freedom, to finding a quiet center, to feeling alienation as the new kid in town.

            So the rock ‘n’ roll heaven’s band is even richer because Glenn Frey is already gone.  Yet we can be grateful for the peaceful easy feeling his music leaves with us.  Take it easy.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

Rock 'n' Roll Heaven

If there’s a rock ‘n’ roll heaven, well you know they’ve got a hell of a band.

                                                                        The Righteous Brothers

            2016 has been a tough year for music lovers like me.  It’s not a dearth of good music.  There has been some wonderful new music released, among my favorites: Lucinda Williams, Ghosts of Highway 20; Bonnie Raitt, Dig In Deep; Mavis Staples, Livin’ On a High Note;  and P. J. Harvey, The Hope Six Demolition Project.

            What has saddened me are the deaths of so many whose musical work has touched our lives and our world, people whose music has been an important part of the soundtrack of our lives.

            The Beatles disbanded before I was even a teenager, but their music was legendary.  I remember hearing “I Saw Her Standing There” on a 45 rpm belonging to an older second cousin.  While singing “She was just seventeen” is a little creepy for a man in his fifties, I still sing along at home or in the car.  “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” spark creativity.  “In My Life” inspires wistful recollections of years gone by.  Who worked with John, Paul, George and Ringo to bring their musical vision to reality – producer George Martin, who died March 8.

            My feelings about the music of David Bowie are not as ebullient as others I’ve heard speak since his death in January.  Nevertheless, I appreciated his music a great deal.  “Space Oddity,” the song about lonely space travel made me feel less alone as a young man who sometimes felt distant from mundane realities. “Changes” is a wonderful song about self-transformation.  “Suffragette City” was an air guitar gem.

            I came later to an appreciation of the music of Merle Haggard, died April 9.  When I was in high school and college, liking country music was anathema.  Yet, you cannot appreciate the wide spectrum of American music without appreciating a range of country music, and Merle Haggard was a giant who had a unique way with songs about heartbreak and living on the edge.

            I will also admit that I was not a follower of the music of Prince in the 1980s.  As his star was rising, I was becoming a parent, and did not have MTV – which actually played music videos back then.  It was probably about ten years later that I really came to delight in his celebratory music and admire and appreciate his extraordinary musicianship along with his creative contributions.  I can’t sit still, unless I am driving, when I hear “1999,” Raspberry Beret,” or “Let’s Go Crazy.”  Nothing compares 2 U, Prince.

            Another musician whose music is delightfully danceable is Maurice White, founding member of Earth, Wind and Fire.  The rhythms of “September” and “Serpentine Fire” still bring a smile to my face and a bounce to my step.  EWF could also spin a wonderful slow song for dancing close, like “That’s the Way of the World.”  Maurice White also died in February.

            When I was in college, they were Jefferson Starship singing about “Miracles”.  In the 1960s they were Jefferson Airplane, singing with urgency – “When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies, don’t you want somebody to love?”  Who didn’t?  Jefferson Airplane guitarist and co-founder Paul Kanter died in January.

            People die – that’s the way of the world, and if there’s a rock ‘n’ roll heaven you know they’ve got a hell of a band.  Yet that music remains with us.  When people in their lives create beauty their lives echo on and we are grateful for that.

            It is also good to remember that while we are not all wonderful musicians, we all have some capacity to create goodness and beauty, we all have an ability to bring a smile to others and to  help them dance.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David