When visiting my Aunt Velma, cousin Ricky would let me listen to his records while my parents and various aunts and uncles played Set Back in the dining room. "You bored buddy? After I leave you can go to my room and listen to my stereo. Be careful with my records, don't scratch em' up". So, after cousin Ricky split for places unknown, I'd wander back to his room and peruse his collection. Iron Butterfly, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Deja Vu), The Who (Live at Leeds), Smokey Robinson, and James Taylor to name a few. I always like the long haired, freaky, married to Carly Simon, James Taylor. Sweet Baby James had just been released and the AM radio stations played the hauntingly beautiful Fire and Rain frequently. I heard the song this morning as I took my daughter to school. It took me back to 1970 and the uncertain days of becoming a teenager. Sadly, Fire and Rain also reminds me that about a year later, in the summer of 1971, cousin Ricky died in a shoot out at an apartment complex. RIP Ricky. This one is for you.
5 comments:
How terrible for your Aunt and your cousin. So sorry that happened.
Thanks for the memories, Larry..I love that song.
This is a REALLY nice tribute.
He had similar taste in music as I did then...
actually got to meet my hero, Smokey, once...he's a terrific guy.
Thanks Z! Yep, Old Smokey can croon with the best of them. I almost posted Tears of a Clown...one of my favorites. The Temps, The Tops, I love all of them. A far cry from Kanye West, Snoop Dog and the various other deviants that comprise "R&B" these days. Good grief!
Yes, Ricky's death was tragic, but unfortunately it was a case of wrong place, wrong time...doing the wrong thing.
Larry, that's a moving story about your cousin Ricky.
My mother has always been a fan of James Taylor. I think I still have a couple of LPs by James Taylor purchased by my father in the 1970s. If only I had a turntable on which to play them.
ECI: Thanks for the comment. I actually have a turntable...and it works. Just more evidence of the old fossil I'm becoming. And of course I have tons of 70's stuff.
Larry! WHERE I met Smokey was the day after a Temps/Tops concert where they did EACH OTHERS' songs..FANTASTIC stuff!
the lights went down in this small theater in LA and suddenly I see who I THINK is Smokey walking down to his seat...
Sure enough, at the end of the show, they brought him UP on stage and HE sang their stuff with them. It was SUCH a great night!
Next day, I'm coming out of the exam rm at my chiropractor's, and I walk INTO the waiting room to go out the front door and there are exactly 2 people sitting there..Smokey and a beautiful girl. I had to say "You won't believe this, but I was at the show last night!" He couldn't believe it because the doc's office is not near the theater and the theater only seats about 500!! Imagine? in all of LA? Well, he introduced me to "IVORY" and we had a nice little chat.
After which I got in my car yelling I MET SMOKEY ROBINSON!!! (oh, am I so cool and calm, or what!?)
Talk about turntables? I was at Best Buys the other day and we noticed there's a big new music department IN WHICH there were RECORD PLAYERS! I could NOT believe it..the young kid said they're selling like hotcakes, that people see the sound's better, etc. There was a BAND album there, their best, and I asked him "You ever heard this?" He hadn't...AH, to get to hear THE BAND for the first time again!
Turntables, imagine!?
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