It is 2017. So much is going on right now that reminds me of years that end in 7.
1967….this was the year The Moody Blues delivered their landmark album Days of Future Passed that featured the songs Tuesday Afternoon and Nights in White Satin. Classic Rock and Roll. We’ll get back to this.
1977…this was the year I was in the 4th grade and still keep going back to as the year the Brownstown Braves had so much fun playing football. I mentioned all this in the last post. Still it stands out so so so much.
1987…our oldest son Jarrett was born. Uh…if my math is correct that will make him 30 this year. Why does he still seem so much younger than that to his mother and me? My grandfather, Herbert D. Johnson, died that year. He was 66. Lung cancer. He smoked one Lucky Strike after another. Did not prove to be so lucky
1997…the year my dear friend Malcolm Todd “Corner King” Lincoln passed. I am still scratching my head at this. Is that why I have lost so much hair. No…that is not it. If it was, I would have been completely bald a very long time ago.
2007…my dear wife, Carrie’s grandfather, Rubert Hawkins died. I still miss the old cuss. We had a great many laughs together.
2017…last Sunday I went to a concert in Louisville’s YUM Center. Roger Waters. The creative genius behind Pink Floyd…they say. Well, I saw Pink Floyd sans Roger Waters in, of course, 1987, and I enjoyed the show. Roger, however, if not the genius, provides the angst that the remaining members of Pink Floyd just didn’t bring to the stage. It was amazing. Roger Waters is a powerful presence. I knew he would be. But it was more than I expected. He was very political in his show. I did not agree with all that I heard and saw. I did agree with some of what I heard and saw…and enjoyed it.
This show was a spectacle unlike anything I have ever seen before. I really enjoyed it.
On July 1, 2017 I will attend a Moody Blues concert and it will be the last one I make it to. I have decided this is it. They are going to play Days of Future Passed in its entirety in the second set of the show 50 years later. Their first show of the tour is June 3rd. I first saw The Moodies in 1986 and I thought they were old. I was 18. They were all 40 or more back then. I am 49. Enough said. It is time. I hate it. I bought Days of Future Passed when I was 15 and it was 16. I fell in love with it. None of my friends cared about it. I was on my own with my music. I didn’t care. It carried me above all that.
An old friend on TV….
I was mashing through the channels on Memorial Day. I tuned into WHAS 11’s Great Day Live. There was a commercial playing. I went back to reading the paper. When they came out of commercial they featured…for a few minutes…an old friend who passed away in 2009.
Tim Krekel and I made music together.
He tore that very guitar up on a guitar solo on a song I wrote. I am honored.
GOLF NEWS
As is the custom on Memorial Day weekend, the 4th of July, and Labor Day weekend, I am invited to participate in a friendly golf outing led by the Nolot patriarch, Jim Nolot, pictured above. We always have a great time. Less than a week earlier, Jim had 4 stents put in to support his heart. He did not hit the driver…but he did hit other shots and putted…and was like Minnie Pearl…just proud to be there. I was proud to be there too.
The first tee.
Waiting for the 9th fairway to clear so we can hit our tee shots.
Good times.
Speaking a great many rights…
Danny Johnson