Now I slipped out the door and I'm runnin' free

It's hard to believe, but a couple of weeks ago my Dad would have celebrated his 94th birthday. So much of his later years were filled with health issues that sometimes it's easy to forget how vibrant he was during my childhood.

Of course, a lot of that vitality disappeared when my Mom died. After that, things were never the same for him, or us. 

This Dave Alvin song tears me up, every damn time. Unfortunately, some of my strongest memories are of my Dad, lying in that bed. I wonder what was going through his mind then -- I like to think it went something along the words in this song.

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was...

Surely time will lose these bitter memories

Today's installment of the Best Song You've Never Heard Before:

Like Dave Alvin, I never had much use for Karen Carpenter and the music of The Carpenters when they were popular. Now, due to different sensibilities or perhaps just creeping mortality, I have a new appreciation for one of the best voices in the history of pop music.

Her songs now can take me home as well.

This is bittersweet, lovely, and quite moving.

Nine Volt Heart

Every night at the dinner table, from the time I was 6 or 7 up until I was around 11, our spaghetti or meat loaf or pork chops was accompanied by the sounds of my brother’s transistor radio. He placed it right next to his plate; my parents may have voiced opposition once or twice, I don’t remember.

But I do remember the WARM (The Mighty 590) jingles – “Hot enough for you? It’s only ‘warm’ for me.”

But, more so, it was the music that resonated. This was 63-68: the British Invasion, Motown, Stax-Volt, The Beach Boys, the great one-offs. It’s not an exaggeration to say that even if every song wasn’t memorable or essential, they all somehow seemed important.

And at any moment you could be floored, and in my case that meant putting down my fork, stopping eating and just listening; it might have been the first time I heard Levi and the Four Tops with “Reach Out, I’ll be There,” “Satisfaction” or the opening guitar feedback from “I Feel Fine.”

Or so many others.

These little moments felt so big at the time. Like the night I first heard “We Can Work it Out” and pestered my parents so hard for the rest of the night that we drove into town to Kresge’s the very next day to buy the 45.

What an investment for 69 cents.

Fortunately my kids appear to have an appreciation for music as well. But they live in a world of instant gratification. If Ruby wants to hear “Nashville Cats” or “Love Me Do,” it just takes a few seconds to find it on the iPod, no matter where we happen to be.

In those days we had to wait for the next song.

The next chance for salvation.

Which, back then, seemed to happen quite often.

Dave Alvin -- Nine Volt Heart
The Ravyns -- Raised on the Radio

Museum of Heart

The Facebook phenomenon sure is a strange one. I was on, then I was off, now I am back on. I left because I had decided that I didn’t want certain people to have the ability to contact me. Returning was prompted by my high school reunion this summer, and it’s been rewarding to catch up with many people I had lost touch with. So now, I’ve thrown caution to the wind; I really don’t care who contacts me, but in reality, the line of folks looking for me really isn’t all that long.

Now, if only we do could away with all the “Social Activities” on the site. You know, the Mafia Wars, FarmVille and the like. In the most polite way possible, I don’t care if anyone has found a lost kitten or lonely cow or has been promoted to head Godfather. It’s boring, superfluous and clutters up the pages. I do care about keeping in touch (for the most part). But, the rest, not so much.

So, I am making a late New Year’s Resolution: All of you Facebook gamers are on notice; I am going to block any one playing or inviting me to play said games. I have no interest in seeing a cartoon image of your newly-harvested crops.

As for one of the more interesting things on Facebook, I turn to Dave Alvin. I had heard that he was actually on the site and doing his own posting, and being a fan of one of the best songwriters of the past 30 years, I put in a friend request. I know, he’s not my “friend,” although I have spoken to him once or twice, and had dinner with the Blasters (sans the Alvin brothers) back in the 80s.

But he’s a fascinating guy, and, what the hell? Lo and behold, he accepted, and he has regularly posted things of great interest: Links to great videos of B.B. King and others, his thoughts on the American Masters Sam Cooke episode and even comments about coyotes out and around his home.

In other words, passionate and heartfelt musings in the same vein as his music.

The Blasters – American Music
Dave Alvin – Fourth of July