In my ever increasing lurch toward the hills and hollows of the mellow lands, I give you BJ Thomas. I saw BJ in Greenville, South Carolina circa 1972. Every blue haired old lady there waited breathlessly on Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head which was made famous in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (remember the bicycle scene with Paul Newman and Katharine Ross). In those days BJ was as well known for his various substance abuses as for his awesome baritone voice; and I suspect he was pretty buzzed at the beginning of the show. Thankfully, that night he sobered up in time to perform a haunting rendition of Rock and Roll Lullaby, which is what I remember most about the evening. I stood with the the blue haired old ladies and cheered. 35+ years later T. Durham and I saw BJ again at the Newberry Opera House...and Rock and Roll Lullaby still sounds as sweet as it did back in 1972. Now I haven't attained blue haired old lady status...yet, but I did give a slightly arthritic standing ovation as the last notes of RARL drifted through the opera house balconies.
I can hear you mama,
my, my, my my mama.
Nothing moves my soul
like the sound of a good old
rock and roll lullabye
6 comments:
Another fine, fine song to keep me mellow at the office as I enjoy my mid-morning coffee. Thank you, sir.
So... as a teenager, you had the same taste in music as the blue-haired old ladies? That's quite a thing. But then, as something of a lounge lizard myself, I can relate.
Lounge lizard you say? I posted this last August. As Frank would have said, "swing it buster, you swing it".
http://midstthehum.blogspot.com/2008/08/its-official-im-lounge-lizard.html
Actually, Larry, you directed me toward your lounge lizard post over at my blog a few months ago. Lounge lizardry is one of life's highest callings.
(Y'know, sir, they say the memory is the second thing to go.)
Now...what was your name again?
Sorry bout that.
And how do you make a link in the comments section. HTML?
Oh, no worries about the second reminder. In fact, it caused me to re-read your lounge lizard post, and I laughed all over again at your friend Mr. Ridgeway's joke, "Same loan shark." The two of you, hanging out, both in casts... hahahahahahahaa!!!!
To make linky-linky in the comments section, yes, you use HTML. You can look at the HTML in one of your posts and use it as a model, or you can follow this succinct tutorial:
1) Ensure your glass is not empty; top up drink if necessary.
2) Opening tag is < a >, and closing tag is < /a > (without the spaces).
3) In opening tag, tell the link where to point. Use the HREF attribute. So, if you were pointing at your Charles Schultz moment post over at three ball dead, the opening tag would look like this (but without the spaces next to the < > brackets):
< a href="http://threeballdead.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-just-had-charles-shultz-moment.html" >
4) The closing tag has nothing in it but the /a business.
5) Put whatever text you want to go linky-linky within the tags.
6) Refill drink again.
The comments section won't take all HTML, but it will take some. Actually, I see the 'structions give a few examples. It won't, for example, take < strike >, which is too bad, because it's a helluva lot of fun.
And if Ridgeway was just making that up about the loan shark, how did you guys end up with contemporaneous broken bones? Heh heh!!
ECI, thanks for the tip.
The "loan shark" reply sounded so much better than what really happened: Ridgeway broke his leg in a work accident while helping unload a rail car of frozen food...very nasty break which required months of healing time. As for me, I broke my ankle playing basketball. Came down with a rebound and landed on a moron's foot who ran up under me. It took Ridgeway a lot longer to get up and 'crutching it' than it did me; but once he was able (and this was 25 years ago), we made quite the sight limping in and out of various taverns and beer joints in the upstate area of SC. Got a lot of free drinks too. We went to one hole in the wall so much, the waitresses would keep us a table open down front near the house band. Those guys did a mean rendition of He Stopped Loving Her Today. Through the Percodan and alchohol haze, me and Ridgeway would sing along...maybe a little off key.
Post a Comment