Sunday 3-17-2019

Sometime this week a song popped into my head. Then another and thoughts about the musicians. So it got me to thinking about Hal Blaine. He was a studio musician who played drums on many of the songs I grew up with. So I looked him up on Wednesday. He's credited with 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. I was quite amazed. The two albums I remember his work on are Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel and Homecoming by America. On reading more about him (Gotta love Google and Wikipedia) I saw he had just passed away at age 90. Two days before I looked him up. It was one of those weird moments. Thinking about him and learning he just passed away. Another weird thing is I didn't see anything about it on the news sites or on the tv news. With this much work to his name one would think there would be some mention of his passing. Or maybe I missed it on the tv news but I know I saw it nowhere on Yahoo that I view every morning. Anyhoo one of my favorite songs that he plays on is California Revisited. Here's a video of the song to honor the memory of one of the greatest American drummers of all time. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Sunday 3-10-2019

First I have to make a correction about my last post. I'm not your steppin' stone was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. This songwriting duo wrote a lot of the Monkees songs and hits. The Neil Diamond song I was thinking of was I'm a believer. A big hit for the Monkees. They did a few Neil Diamond songs. Last night I was listening to a greatest hits cd by the Monkees and wow I forgot how good some of the songs are even today. I also learned something I didn't know about the song the Last train to Clarksville. It's about a young man leaving to go to Vietnam. A lot of young lives were cut short in that war and nothing was good about it at all. Anyhoo to further tribute to the Monkees, here's another song by Neil Diamond that they did besides I'm a Believer....

 I find myself looking
I find myself thinking
I find myself bleeding
I find myself needing
Closure..

Sunday 3-3-2019

This week we lost Peter Tork of the Monkees. Back in the mid 60's this made for tv musical group The Monkees  provided us growing up with lots of laughter. Much has been written about them not playing any musical instruments on their early recordings. However when they were allowed to do their own thing they surprised the giant recording industry at their excellence. I found this video from the Tonight Show that shows just how talented they became.  This version of their classic hit written by Neil Diamond  will get you rockin'......

Sunday 2-24-2019

As the days go by not much changes. Every morning awakening to sadness. Weekends are tougher now than before. I can't help but grieve for my two losses in an empty house. Sometimes silence isn't golden. Still...just one day at a time....

 

Sunday 2-17-19

Another day of sadness
Fills the morning sky
Lost far in my mind
I can only sigh
~
The days are very long
Sometimes too much to see
Drawn in loneliness
Oh how can it be
~
Only a day at a time
As life moves so slow
A thousand memories
Seem to come and go
~
Will I sleep once again
Dreaming of before
Frozen there in time
Of the open door
~
So goes the way
Just another day..
By Greg 2-17-19

Sunday 2-10-2019

Not much to say this week. I'm like in a fog these days. Everything seems out of whack. So I'll post a song that's a classic because I've been thinking a lot about Yesterdays.....

 

Saturday 2-2-2019

Last Sunday was another blow to me. Our dog got real sick and I took him to the pet emergency room. Sadly he was never going to be the same and went to sleep on January 27, 2019. They told me he probably had a stroke. There were other issues too. One was he forgot how to work his hind legs. He would have been 12 years old in April. It's a big blow since he passed just a few months after my girlfriend. It's heartbreaking. Now my immediate family of three is but one me. On the bright side they are walking together once again. So here's one of the last pics I took of him the day before after we got home from his bath...