We're in for a heat swell. I don't like hot weather except now in late August when the sticky air is like peach fur, the cicadas hum, and you know cool air is coming soon.
This evening, I'm pulling old photos off the desktop computer I've shared with Mz for almost four years before she takes it away when she moves in two days (Sept. 1).
I'd forgotten a lot of the photos, some of which are really pretty good, and also how much Ilike love taking pictures.
(Why don't I do the things I love?)
I need a new camera! I don't need a fancy one:
the one I broke was a $200 point-and-shoot.
Below, from a couple summers ago, 2013, playing Neil Diamond's album Hot August Night, (1972)vat the David Byrne's "Play the Building" installation downtown,
and below that--the same orange record player at home.
("Hot August night" is also the opening line to Diamond's 1969 single "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show", [links to the official version] which is a GREAT song, about "tremendous yearing looking for answers, some way to ease a very hard burden, very rough lives,"
even though Diamond later slid off into ... slimy.
Hey, people change!
Compare him singing this song live in 1970, ([starts at 2:15] on the Johnny Cash show) when he's still green, almost sweet and shy, and likable, to his lounge lizard performance in 1976. * )
This evening, I'm pulling old photos off the desktop computer I've shared with Mz for almost four years before she takes it away when she moves in two days (Sept. 1).
I'd forgotten a lot of the photos, some of which are really pretty good, and also how much I
(Why don't I do the things I love?)
I need a new camera! I don't need a fancy one:
the one I broke was a $200 point-and-shoot.
Below, from a couple summers ago, 2013, playing Neil Diamond's album Hot August Night, (1972)vat the David Byrne's "Play the Building" installation downtown,
and below that--the same orange record player at home.
("Hot August night" is also the opening line to Diamond's 1969 single "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show", [links to the official version] which is a GREAT song, about "tremendous yearing looking for answers, some way to ease a very hard burden, very rough lives,"
even though Diamond later slid off into ... slimy.
Hey, people change!
Compare him singing this song live in 1970, ([starts at 2:15] on the Johnny Cash show) when he's still green, almost sweet and shy, and likable, to his lounge lizard performance in 1976. * )
My favorite of these sorts of songs (gospel Christian?) is the wonderful "Turn Your Radio On" (1940 recording), by the hillbilly Blue Sky Boys, another brother duo, a song I'm crazy about:
"Get in touch with God,
Turn your radio on...."
Their soft accents remind me of my mother's Missouri relatives.
The way they sing "listen to the music in the air [ehhhr]" makes me homesick for a whole bunch of folks who are long gone,
"the many friends gone on before..." and those who will soon be gone.
________________________
*Credit where credit is due:
Stacia's amazing post on Neil Diamond and writing, "Matter of Fact, It's All Dark", at She Blogged By Night, in which she gives full credit to a greatest-hits album's ability to send a person into "the throes of some weird ennui-induced thing...."
Stacia's amazing post on Neil Diamond and writing, "Matter of Fact, It's All Dark", at She Blogged By Night, in which she gives full credit to a greatest-hits album's ability to send a person into "the throes of some weird ennui-induced thing...."
Brother Love's Travelin' Salvation Show has always been one of my favorites by Neil Diamond (whom Tim and I saw together in 1978 in Seattle). I loved the exact pitch he struck with the lyrics between playful teasing and rather humble appreciation. It was great to watch the Johnny Cash performance and hear Diamond's personal story behind it. (I agree he became rather slimy later, but this was when he was fresh.) Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could send you a new camera.
Oh, wow, you SAW Neil Diamond?!?!? And BEFORE he got all lounge-lizardy?
ReplyDeleteThat must have been amazing; I envy you.
I saw Bruce Springsteen in 1976---"Born to Run" had been released, but the auditorium wasn't even sold out! I could walk right up to the edge of the stage and stand there the whole time. (Can't do that now, with security.)
A stand-out memory.
Tim bought tickets for my Christmas (1977) present when we were dating, and the concert was in Feb. I recall the big-time glitzy-ness of the concert, so ND had probably passed his fresh date by then. ;) But his songs were always good. I had bought an album in early high school, with Longfellow Serenade on it, and I loved that one, too.
ReplyDeleteThat's very cool that you were right there with Bruce Springsteen, before MTV, even!
Such adventures.
Nice present!
ReplyDelete