Luc Posted July 20, 2014 Posted July 20, 2014 I've lifted this from the Sunday morning suggestion thread, I was going to post it there but it grew a bit. can't think of any time of day when JC doesn't suit the mood luc but with the Carter Family Sunday morning is pretty appropriate songs about family place love God and a well a murder ballad I grew up with my folks(I should say my parents but there you go...it's the American influence) playing music on Sunday mornings and J.Cash was a big part of that, decades before he became trendy...and yes he is and has been trendy for a fair few years now. (Hey John! Give us the bird...yeah the bird!...Onya John). so much so that I couldn't stand him, I equate him and so much other 50's+60's stuff with 'squareness', can't help it. I'm a child of my times. But with age comes acceptance, not wisdom mind you...I think you have to be blessed with that particular attribute and it certainly missed me. But acknowledgement of skill and attributes and recognition of those abilities is something I'm growing into now at the middle to approaching f.ag-end of my time. So much so that I've raided my increasingly dementia afflicted mothers record collection. She's 86 and she's lost it but we can still listen to music and with the music comes memories. Try this for this evenings memory as I served her Sunday roast at our house and slipped in a nice Sav Blanc into her increasingly thin frame: "Johnny Cash always upset your father you now, he hated him. Really mum, why? Because Sunday mornings were Ray Charles mornings and C+W not bloody Johnny Cash." I remember he liked Tex Ritter and Hank Williams. "Yes he did and I'd put on that black girl who did alcohol and the fat man from Daniel Boone(the TV series from the 60's, we used to watch it on Friday nights in Melbourne) and Johnny Cash." It took me a long time to work out who the "fat man" was. I asked her who she meant and she couldn't tell me. Last year I played some FLAC to her to keep her occupied while I did whatever it was I was doing at her house and I hear her singing in a rather bad voice; "Well aisle...aisle...aisle-bee-ur-ur-ur-urbaybee-2nite!" I twigged straight away; Fatman=Burl Ives, he was a frequent cameo/guest star on the Daniel Boone TV series. I was playing some Dylan. Now to work out who the black girl who did alcohol was took another serendipitous turn. You have to have lived with (not necessarily literally mind you) someone who's faculties are sloughing off like slow chunks of a glacier into the endless sea to appreciate the windows of opportunity to peek into the mind of someone who's been on this earth for seven or eight decades or indeed more and you get an instant insight to an era, a time, a soft place that you'll never know unless a time machine is invented. I had a CD playing one day not all that long ago and my mum was here and she said just out of the blue; "You were building your Meccano set into a crane and the little winder with the string attached to the hook wouldn't lift up and down." I was bewildered, where did that come from? Mum, what do you mean? "Duke Ellington's song." Umm...what do you mean? "That girl sang it." I looked at the CD cover, The Big Lebowski soundtrack...well, I'll be!! Nina Simone, a quick google and it turns out that the 1941 track by the Duke was one of Nina's big hits and that's what was playing, 'I Got it Bad.' I just looked at my mum who had/has that awful look of the aged when you know they aren't 'present'. Mum...mum...MUM! " Don't yell I can hear you I'm not deaf you know." Mum is this the music you played on Sunday mornings that upset Dad? "I couldn't stand Tex Ritter but I did like Ray Charles but Johnny Cash was special and that black girl could play a piano and sing like a...." She lost her train of thought there and I remembered all this tonight when I saw the above album cover. I don't think she did but...you grab what you can when you've lost your Mother or your Father or who ever is close to you, to creeping senility. It's a horrible f.ucking thing to witness and these tiny little windows of ordinariness are what makes it worthwhile for you as you approach the decision to pop them into a home and you stall that idea once again and hope that you can just forestall it to...whenever. The fat man from Daniel Boone...lol 8
ZEN MISTER Posted July 20, 2014 Posted July 20, 2014 Lee that was beautiful.. you have the soul of a poet, old chap. ZM.
mrbuzzardstubble Posted July 25, 2014 Posted July 25, 2014 Nicely written Luc and sorry to hear of your mum's condition Your post reminded me of a friend,an actor who was unable to work for quite a while due to a fall off stage-accidently knocked off by Frances O'Connor. While he was recuperating he was working with a chap in Balmain who was on a project of recording some cds to be used as a sort of memory aid using old music.I don't know what became of that project. James Kirby a.k.a The Caretaker did something similar about 10 years ago.Check out the details on wiki's entry under The Caretaker for a few details. All the best.
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