Digging Deep...

Elton John, "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy"

Lest ye discount Ol' Reg as some sort of oddball... Listen and pay attention to some of the really old stuff. Some of it actually has a sort of Country Music tinge to it. "Rotten Peaches" "Indian sunset"

"Capt Fantastic" and "Madman Across the Water" are two wonderful albums.

Full of detail. Rich in imagery. Both lyrically and musically.

LOL! I don't know how much writing I'll get done. I keep drifting into the music! And that's OK too. Music to me is like a safe harbor at times. Protected, known and comfortable.

Excuse me, I'll just bang my head against the wall for a sec... I'll be right back... Why oh why did I never learn to play piano? The intro to "Bitter Fingers" and the lyric....
"It's hard to write a song with bitter fingers... so much to prove and so few to tell you why..."

"Like a corn blue flame..."
It's an image but its deeper than say, "like a hot blue flame". OK I dumbed that down a bit. I think I could do better than a 'hot blue flame' but could I top a "corn blue flame"?

It's all in the nuances. A different creative approach.

(Drifting, Sorry,
"Tell Me When the Whistle Blows"
... me I'm young and I'm so wise... there's taxi cabs a hootin' but I can't be footloose forever... my suitcase it's a cheap one but my darling she's a dear one... just a black sheep going home...)

(Laughing Hysterically, sort of,
"...are you concerned, he said Nein...")
OK I don't speak Deutsch so I can't spell ''NO" but what a touch!?

Some of you know how Warren Zevon touches my thinking. Roll it back thirty years and Elton John was The Man. (No snide comments please. ;-) I know he hasn't done much but Pop songs and pimp himself as an aging artist lately but even "Reg Strikes Back" had a nugget or two. I guess that was a while back too.

There are even some truths in some songs. Sir Elton's works and many many others.

I.E. "Meal Ticket" Way back when. When I first heard the song, a meal ticket to me was the thing your Mom gave you money for every Monday morning and you were to pay the lunch lady for a punch card so you could eat lunch for the week.

('...the flickering neon stands ready to fuse...
' How great is that?
'... if you ask how I am then I'll just say 'inspired'...'
Sorry, Pardon me but that ain't standard Pop.)

Now, I realize that the meal ticket could be a license, a degree, a skill or talent. But it must be properly cultivated and applied.

Here is a perfectly appropriate line for all of us,

"... will the lines we wrote today, sound as good tomorrow... will we still be writing in approaching years... we can stretch our legs if we have a mind but don't disturb us if you hear us trying to instigate the structure of another line or two..."

"We all fall in love sometimes... I used to know this old scarecrow... cast among the furoughs of a field no longer sown by anyone... I held a dandelion... I once wrote such childish words for you... but that's OK because there's treasure children always seem to find..."

The Little Fella just never quit... Or was it Bernie? Crud, yeah I should be crediting Bernie Taupin for the lyrical imagery. Hell of a Duo.

Here's a little funny for ya! Years ago I saw an Alice Cooper concert video. I kept looking at the guitar player... Eventually 'Alice' introduced the band. When he got around to the guitar player, the guitar player broke out with "Saturday Nights Alright". Confirmation! Davey Johnstone!
'Alice', "Hey, hey hey cut that #%&* out! I pay you more that he does!!!"

Here's some Blogger Trivia for ya. I saw E.J. on my Birthday TWICE! "84 and '86 I think. One time with the original band and the other with the band and an orchestra. Can you see the tears running down an overwhelmed little Bloggers face. Happy Freakin' Amazing Birthday to Me!

I just hit the replay button. I'll spare ya the redeux!

From the 'Tower of Babel', that's some real nada!
Have a ball ya'll!!!!

(From the Editors Desk. Blogger Spell Check didn't like several words here and a couple it had no good suggestions for. One was funny to me. It doesn't like "Zevon" but it offers "Levon" as an alternative! Get it?)