The Barricades Of Heaven
It was sunny today. Spring is coming. Just when I want to put on the brakes and have the world slow down. I’m thirty one days in but I can see the ski season ending, and with the California drought I doubt Mammoth will make it until June.
I don’t think I could live on the east coast. Gray was natural, to be expected when I grew up there, but having lived in Southern California for decades I enjoy the rain, an occasional overcast day, but string a few together and I get depressed.
Not that I don’t get down out here. Felice’s house is nestled into the hills and from November until…just about now, it can get pretty dark. But then I walk outside and…
I remember they told you to turn on the a/c in the winter to maintain the system. That was a chore in Vermont and Utah, but out here it’s a regular activity. I had it on today. When the sun was shining, the thermometer hit eighty and I was thrilled to be alive.
Possibility. It’s what comes after satisfaction. Driving down the highway with the sunroof open and the radio blasting and you think…about what you can do.
And that’s when songs start running through my brain. When I walk down the sidewalk and lyrics are popping through my brain gaining new insight all the while.
Jackson Browne had a comeback in ’93, “I’m Alive.” But without huge commercial success he went back to rocking. He cast aside his acoustic return and fired up the band and the result, 1996’s “Looking East,” was even less successful, because as you age so does your audience and suddenly they don’t want to hear anything new. But I liked that album, especially the title cut, but those songs didn’t really come alive until Jackson released them in live acoustic versions in 2005.
Running down around the towns along the shore
When I was sixteen and on my own
I was not on my own when I was sixteen. Maybe it’s a SoCal thing, where every Valleyite remembers taking the bus to Zuma. With the weather so good, no crime in evidence, little dirt and detritus, parents relax the reins, they let their kids go not only to the beach, but to the Strip, to find themselves.
Life became the Paradox, the Bear, the Rouge et Noir
And the stretch of road running to L.A.
That’s the Golden Bear, in Huntington Beach. The Sweetwater in Redondo. There was a musical scene, steeped in folk music, that rivaled Greenwich Village. Only in this case you drove there, and there was somewhere to park, and you went to partake in the scene and the tunes. Going home later to listen to your albums and practice your guitar. Back then that’s what we did. Just like kids Instagram and YouTube today. We were looking for the same things, notoriety and fame, it’s just that in this case it was all based in music.
No I couldn’t tell you what the hell those brakes were for
I was just trying to hear my song
Ah, the immortality and optimism of youth. Then again, minor scrapes and bruises take forever to heal when you’re older, when you’re young the damage disappears long before your next adventure. And it was this relentless testing of limits that led to the explosion of consciousness and sound in San Francisco and Los Angeles. And it’s the underpinning of the Silicon Valley revolution. And the Hollywood dream factory to this day.
It’s all about the possibilities. Discovering who you are and then doubling down on it.
But you need a base of freedom, a safety net that embraces failure, in order to triumph.
So while you were battling the precipitation, bundling up against the elements, wishin’ and hopin’ that spring would come, it’s already here…
In Los Angeles.
Just thought I’d let you know.
The rebirth has happened. We’re challenging preconceived notions. We’re testing the limits.
Better bring your own redemption when you come
To the barricades of heaven where I’m from
You’re coming, right?
