Pence wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

You need to read this article. It’s more important than anything I have to say herein:

“Democrats Need To Be Clear About Where This Could Be Headed”

It’s about the system, not the issues. The above was written by a Harvard professor, not someone wearing a tin foil hat.

No one’s mind was changed via tonight’s debate. As a matter of fact, I’d recommend all further debates be canceled, they’re a waste of time. We’ve seen the candidates, we get it, all that is left is for Donald Trump to browbeat Joe Biden while he fails to observe the debate rules that he agreed to.

Just like Mike Pence.

At first you had to have sympathy for the vice president. He had to defend the terrible record of the Bizarro in Chief. But as one continued to listen, one could see that he buys into a lot of the crap he was saying, which is positively scary.

As for the Trump team’s governing philosophy…Pence came out with it right away, and then hammered it over and over again, he believes in the American people, not government, that the people will do the right thing, in other words…YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN!

I’d go deeper but you’ve already made up your mind. But it’s clear if you believe Donald Trump cares about you, is gonna help you, the answer is no, AND PENCE ADMITTED IT RIGHT UP FRONT!

Not that he’d answer the question, almost never. Which is why these debates are such a waste of time. Kamala could think on her feet, Pence just repeated his talking points over and over again, like a third grader who didn’t do his homework.

But having said that, it was painfully obvious that the same people who prepared Trump for last week’s debate prepared Pence for this one. Not only would Pence not answer direct questions, he consistently went over time, again and again, as if the rules didn’t matter. And the truth is both Trump and Pence believe they don’t. Never forget that.

The one thing we learned, that was loud and clear, is that Kamala Harris is the smartest of the four people running, the most nimble, the one who can think while talking, who can deftly argue her case. After tonight, no Biden fan should have any worry about Harris taking over his Administration. She’s beyond competent. As for experience, she’s more experienced in government than Obama was!

But you can see why Kamala lost the nomination. She’s a prosecutor through and through. She’s tough as nails and there to win. And some of her expressions when Pence railed on worked against her, she was disgusted by his lies. However, she did temper those reactions as the debate wore on.

My point being you wouldn’t want to have a beer with either of these people. That was George Bush, who ran on being warm and fuzzy. And I’m talking about impressions here, image, not truth. And the unfortunate thing is running for public office is oftentimes too much about image, substance is kicked aside.

Like Pence’s lies.

We live in scary times. The Trumpers get all their news in a parallel universe, where falsehoods and twists of truth are de rigueur, to the point where when Trump or Pence utter them their acolytes believe them. Then again, almost everybody watching is not up on the facts of what is being discussed. Like fracking…it’s an ungodly large money pit. These companies will never make any money, meanwhile they paid their CEOs millions. It’s been all over the “Wall Street Journal,” the right wing paper of record, but once again, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Americans hate change, sorry to say so. They’re all fearful they’re gonna lose something in the transition. So if you try to throw the long ball, they cower, even though it’s Sanders and Warren who were truly standing up for the average American, who is financially challenged and behind the 8-ball. So we’ve got Biden.

The problem with Biden is he’s not good at conveying his message. He can only lose in further debate. Biden is experienced, he knows the right thing to do, he’s exercised good judgment, but as a candidate…not good. Furthermore, there’s no doubt he’s not as sharp as he was in the VP debates of yore.

Which brings us back to Kamala Harris. She’s too edgy to win general election. But as #2 she’s a princess, a hammer in a velvet glove. To watch her work her way through what she wanted to say to ultimately answer the question was amazing. We haven’t seen this skill since Bill Clinton. Then again, if you’re smart and educated you’ve got two strikes against you with the right. The right would rather pray the problems go away, are so busy keeping themselves in the hole they’re in that they cannot be lifted up. The right is so busy denigrating the left that its disadvantaged constituents can’t see what they’re losing, their religion is hating liberals just as much as loving God.

Now if Biden were to become incapacitated, or to pass, I’ve got complete confidence in Harris, she proved her mettle tonight. She can think on her feet, weigh the evidence. And if she were to inherit the presidency I have no doubt she would do a good job and be electable thereafter. But, once again, I can see why she lost in the primaries. America doesn’t like smart women, doesn’t like women with a backbone. And I’m wary of prosecutors, but maybe that’s exactly what our country now needs, to stand up to the bullies, not that Harris responded as to what measures she and her party would take if Trump refused to leave office.

No one answered the tough questions, no one answered the gotcha questions. Harris bobbed and weaved. Pence employed the Trump playbook, just hammer the points and lie, lie, lie…what are the chances your voters are gonna see the corrections in the “New York Times” or on CNN, never mind MSNBC. NONE!

But the truth is there is now no truth. We all drink from different media wells and Donald Trump has done an excellent job of undercutting truthful media. So far, it’s only been pundits fighting back, but tonight Kamala Harris fought back, and that was inspiring.

It’s time we got a fighter.

And isn’t it interesting that the fighters in the Democratic party are all women. From Harris to AOC to Pelosi. It’s the men we’ve got to worry about, the mealy-mouthed Schumer who seems to have left his balls in the locker room. You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight and to win you have to know your enemy and prepare for their behavior, whereas the men in the Democratic party whine and then say to trust the system. As for that system, I was waiting for Harris to say that Trump put in so many unqualified and biased judges because the Republican Senate refused to approve Obama’s picks. But, once again, these are not history lessons, just impressions.

Maybe, like in “Borgen,” we need a scoreboard. Maybe we have to move to the world we presently live in, reality television, where Trump made his bones. It seems that straight reporting, doing it the tried and true way, no longer works. So let’s get the flashing lights and buzzers. Let’s have a counter that evidences the number of lies told. Let’s declare a winner. Hell, we can have a panel, like in boxing, or in ice skating…a judge from each team and then a neutral arbiter.

Trump has turned America into a cartoon. Harris expertly listed the Trump administration’s foreign policy flaws and Pence couldn’t get out of the Middle East, telling lies all the while.

But I guess their debating style, Pence and Trump, is just like their governing style. Let’s forget the big picture, the “losers,” the people of color, while we drill down on broad issues that don’t speak to everyday life, like religion. Or coal. Or the “fraud” in mail-in ballots.

Unfortunately too many Americans are just that dumb. Whomever hammers their message more consistently too often wins, no matter how flawed and fraudulent.

This is where we’ve arrived.

But thank god we’ve got someone who’s up to the challenge.

That’s what we learned about Kamala Harris tonight.

Some records you only have to hear once.

Johnny Nash was the face of reggae. Sure, there was a whole scene down in Jamaica, Paul Simon had used the island groove for “Mother and Child Reunion,” but most people still did not know whether you pronounced it “reggie” or “reg-gay,” if they’d heard the term at all. The big buzz didn’t happen until the following year, in anticipation of the first Wailers album on Island and the ultimate distribution of “The Harder They Come.”

Although he’s now truly a legend, Bob Marley didn’t have purchase in the American market until his fifth American album, when the act was now known as Bob Marley and the Wailers. Recorded at the Lyceum in London in the summer of ’75, the album wasn’t released until the following December, and then the legend of “Live!” built over the course of a year, to the point where the following studio album, “Exodus,” was a certified hit. Not that the studio albums before had not possessed some great numbers, “Burnin'” had “Get Up, Stand Up,” never mind “I Shot the Sheriff,” but Clapton had the hit, with his execrable overplayed version on “461 Ocean Boulevard.” And “Natty Dread” had “No Woman, No Cry” but it took years for that to become a standard. “Rastaman Vibration” had the sound but not the hits and it looked like Marley and the hyped to high heaven reggae sound was going to remain an island curio, it was never going to break through.

You only had to drop the needle on “Live!” to get it. All the way from Jamaica the boys immediately locked into the groove of “Trenchtown Rock” and one thing was for sure, when you were listening you were feeling no pain.

And from thereafter the world was hit with Bob Marley’s music. In some respects it was like the Grateful Dead, you had to see the band live to get it. But unlike the Dead, anybody who listened to “Live!” could get it, you could not help but move your body in time. Furthermore, unlike the Dead, Marley permeated the ears of the entire world and reggae was now a well-known genre.

To help promote reggae, to break his acts, Chris Blackwell funded a movie entitled “The Harder They Come.” It was raw and violent, yet meaningful. It was a Boston legend, playing forever at the Orson Welles Cinema, but the film took years to permeate the culture. Yesterday you went from market to market and if you were good enough you got a chance, everybody could see what you were doing. Today, you have the power to reach the whole world instantly yet be great and go unnoticed. The times they have ‘a-changed.

“The Harder They Come” soundtrack broke earlier and bigger than the film. It introduced the world to Toots and the Maytals, as well as the Melodians, but the star of the album and the film were one Jimmy Cliff, who not only sang the title cut, but “Many Rivers to Cross” and the album’s sleeping giant, “Sitting Here in Limbo.”

But this was the peak of Cliff’s career. Even though he’s a stellar performer, he never had a big hit. He faded from the public consciousness. He was ostracized from the scene because he was not a Rastafarian, but a Muslim, he was not a member of the island club.

And Johnny Nash most certainly wasn’t.

Now if you read the obits, if you read the press back in ’72, not only the rock but the mainstream, you were aware that Johnny Nash had not come from nowhere, but his heyday was in the fifties, before the Beatles, before boomers tuned in and music changed the world.

In 1972 I was going to college in Vermont, back before Amazon, back before VHS, never mind DVD. There was no FedEx and no streaming. As for music? You could listen to the college station. But I never did, because I was used to New York radio, I didn’t want to hear the records the wankers spun, too often passé or the same Derek & the Dominos, Allman Brothers and Dead songs I’d burned out on long before. So I was left with the magazines, “Rolling Stone,” “Fusion” and “Crawdaddy.” That’s what I truly studied in college, and reading them word for word I was kept up with what was going on in the real world. And that’s how I’d buy my records, based on reviews. Because I could not hear the tracks, no way. And since I bought so many records I needed to buy them at a discount, I found the prices at the Vermont Book Store, full pop, an insult. Occasionally I employed the Record Club of America, but they always lagged on new product, and I had a connection to Sam Goody and could buy at wholesale but the minimum was fifty bucks, which was a little too rich for my blood.

And in the early seventies, most cars did not have FM tuners. Kids still hadn’t thrown over 8-track tapes for cassettes, that really started about ’76. And the FM tuners in cars were really bad. My dad’s ’69 Thunderbird and our ’70 Country Squire had FM, I’d insisted on it in the latter, but reception was weak, you could not easily listen to New York stations in Connecticut, the signal kept cutting in and out.

So, you listened to AM.

And the first time I heard “I Can See Clearly Now” was in a friend’s automobile in Vermont. I did not have a car. And it was like an elixir poured down from the heavens by God. This was an instant smash. It didn’t sound like anything else on the radio. Imagine hearing “I Can See Clearly Now” on Top Forty today, it would be just as revolutionary, even though there’d be no chance, Top Forty is only hip-hop and pop.

But I gave up buying singles back in the sixties. They were a bad value. I took my music seriously. I needed the album, I needed to go deep, assuming the LP was just not the hit and some filler.

And “I Can See Clearly Now” was so gigantic that it permeated airwaves to the point where papers and magazines stopped writing about it. Why? It was in plain sight, just twist the radio dial and you’d hear it, but I couldn’t, because I lived in Vermont, but every time I got in someone’s car I’d yearn for it to come over the airwaves.

My sister Jill graduated from BU in ’73 and was starting graduate school at USC in the fall of ’74, I drove to California with her. We camped. But the problem is most of these camping areas were for RVs, our tent pegs couldn’t penetrate the compacted dirt, and whenever we could we’d camp in state or national parks. And this night in West Virginia we had one picked out.

West Virginia is hilly. Which is a surprise, because the roads leading in are not. And the goal is to get to the campground before nightfall, because there’s little lighting in the woods, in the campgrounds themselves. But this evening we were running late. We’d entered the park in pitch black and I was driving the LeMans on the twisty two-lane when…THERE WAS A GIANT HOLE!

You remember your close calls. Obviously there’d been a rain event, which had washed out half the roadway, OUR HALF OF THE ROADWAY!

And this was an American car, not a nimble, fast-braking German automobile. And we’re going about 45 and I had to jerk the steering wheel to get the car over to the other side of the road on a curve, I’d say lord knows what would have happened if someone was coming in the other direction, but to tell you the truth that would have been preferable to falling into this ten foot hole that was a good fifteen feet long and like I said, went all the way to the stripe in the middle of the road, assuming there’d been one.

And it’s like the circus. You keep on driving. Maybe a bit slower. Meanwhile, you’re on autopilot, the Grim Reaper was just about to get you and his scythe missed you by just this much.

And then “I Can See Clearly Now” came over the radio. I remember. Vividly.

When I got back to Connecticut I bought the album and took it with me back for my senior year at Middlebury.

The album opened with “Stir It Up,” which wasn’t released in America until the Wailers’ ’73 Island debut, “Catch a Fire” with its hinged cover, once they eliminated that I didn’t bother to buy it.

Nash’s album also had a version of “Guava Jelly,” which had been released by the Wailers in ’71 on Tuff Gong, but it had no impact in the U.S. whatsoever, like “Stir It Up” it wasn’t commercially released here, at least not to my knowledge.

So, unlike Paul Simon, Johnny Nash was fully embracing reggae, it permeated his LP.

But then, over time the Wailers gained purchase outside Jamaica and then really broke through in the late seventies and Johnny Nash was seen as a pariah, an interloper, he’d become an outcast, like Jimmy Cliff, but much worse.

The truth was Nash was heavily involved in reggae as a business. It was he who broke the sound big in America. But since he wasn’t Jamaican, since he was not a Rasta, he failed the authenticity test. Johnny Nash paved the way for reggae in America but then he was plowed under. “Stir It Up” made it all the way to #12 after “I Can See Clearly Now” but then Nash never ever had another hit, he was essentially blackballed.

BUT HE WROTE “I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW”!

It’s one thing to rape a culture, be Pat Boone detuning, making R&B safe for white audiences, but that was not the case with Nash, who was black himself, albeit from Texas.

“I Can See Clearly Now” is not the boasting winner of today, rather the singer is coming from under as opposed to on top, he’s managed to get his head straight to play another day, his optimism is back.

And the truth is pessimistic songs are more legendary than optimistic ones. But “I Can See Clearly Now” is so much the other, so innocent, so heartfelt, so personal that no one failed to resonate with it. It was not smarmy, this was not the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar,” this was not bubble gum, this was the real thing!

So yesterday Johnny Nash died. He lamented “I Can See Clearly Now” did not win the Grammy, but as good as “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was, “I Can See Clearly Now” is vastly superior. But the Grammy organization always catches up late, it’s a club, if you’re an outsider they don’t acknowledge you, and what’s a Grammy worth anyway? So many legendary artists never won one, then again the Starland Vocal Band has a Grammy for “Afternoon Delight.”

I wish everybody could see clearly today. I wish the dark clouds were gone. I wish we could be optimistic, but that’s not the vibe permeating the culture. But if you just drop the needle, click Spotify to hear “I Can See Clearly Now,” your mood will be instantly transformed, you’ll see the opportunities, the glass will be half-full. Only music has this power, but it’s hard to achieve. We can talk all day about capturing lightning in a bottle, inspiration, but most people never even see the idea, never mind catch it and lay it down for all to hear.

Johnny Nash retreated from the scene, licking his wounds, like Rodney Dangerfield he got no respect, he could live off the publishing royalties from his one big hit but everybody saw him as a one hit wonder.

Do I want to argue that? Do I want to cite what came before?

I’m not even gonna bother. Sometimes a single track can cement your place in the firmament for all time, just look at Don McLean (sure, he also had “Vincent,” but Johnny had “Stir It Up” and more).

At this point in time, I’d wager “I Can See Clearly Now” is the biggest, most well-known reggae track of all time. Johnny Nash achieved what very few have, he wrote and recorded a smash that defies age, that continues to play, that is for all time.

Thanks Johnny, you’ve given the world many bright, bright, sunshiny days.

Covid is killing the theatres, not only for movies but for live shows. And it’s only going to get worse.

I’m sure you’re aware by now that Regal Cinemas have closed in the U.S. Concert venues are already closed. What can open them up? THE DECIMATION OF COVID-19!

The people are too afraid to go out. Forget the vocal minority, there are not enough people willing to flout mask and other prophylactic measures to keep the economy alive, the rest of us are just afraid. You can open it but they will not come, no way.

So, the movie studios are holding back pictures, they don’t want to lose their investment.

And it’s not only live business that has been decimated, magazines are dropping by the wayside. “Powder” and “Men’s Journal” just died and if you check your print subscription it probably says “Summer” or “Fall” or “September/October,” monthly is out the window. These publications were already challenged, with advertising moving online, but with advertisers having fewer bucks to spend and the public tightening its purse strings, somebody’s gonna get squeezed.

But you’re on your own. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you just had the right genes you would be a winner.

The one story you need to read today comes from the “Los Angeles Times”:

“Trump’s touting of ‘racehorse theory’ tied to eugenics and Nazis alarms Jewish leaders”

“‘You have good genes, you know that, right?’ Trump told a mostly all white crowd of supporters in Bemidji, Minn., on Sept. 18. ‘You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.'”

Talk about white nationalism, Charlottesville was amateur hour compared to this. And if you think this audience believes Black Lives Matter then you’re unaware of the militias fighting protesters, never mind the Proud Boys themselves.

Trump thinks he’s better. He truly does. We take it as a joke, but he does not.

Meanwhile, there was no ending to the movie, or a premature, unsatisfying one at best. Monday Trump went home, today “he reports no symptoms.” Assuming you can read, assuming you have the power of analysis, TRUMP REPORTED HE WAS SYMPTOM FREE, THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE WHAT THE DOCTORS BELIEVE!

Do you know anybody who’s had Covid? Been to the hospital? It never goes down this way. If they do manage to exit from a medical facility they come home broken and barely alive. But Trump believes he’s different, and so do his minions. And they’re receiving different messaging, that Covid can be whipped, even someone in the demo with a preexisting condition like Trump could conquer it no problem. Let’s all get back to work! But as I stated above, most of the public does not want to do this, rightfully so, so…

There’s a fiction on the left that this is a normal election, that the regular rules apply, when nothing could be further from the truth. As for applying the laws, the courts are now stacked with Trump appointees, how do you think that’s going to play out? So the only way Biden has a chance of beating Trump is if the election results are definitively in Joe’s favor on election day. But I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to the polls. Furthermore, in many communities, especially in ones of color, voting requires hours long waits. We can’t get tens of millions of people to vote at all, do you think they’re going to stand in the cold for a full day just to cast their insignificant ballot? Oh, we know that every vote is important, we learned that in 2000, but that was twenty years ago, the youth did not live through it.

As for the mail-in vote, Trump has already said he is not going to accept it.

So, Biden lays off the negative advertising and Trump doubles down. It’s like they’re not even playing the same game. For illustration read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers.” The white shoe law firms wouldn’t do takeovers, you needed upstarts, the Jews these firms would not employ, to get that ball rolling. The DNC is running a white shoe campaign. With “dignity.” Why not give us some truth? No, because they’re afraid of alienating someone who is gonna vote for Trump anyway. And the right is comprised of crybabies, anything they don’t like they complain about until the next crisis comes along.

But none of this is really relevant. Because Trump isn’t gonna accept the result if he loses, HE KEEPS SAYING THIS! And I ask you, when has Trump ever changed his mind, unless it was good for him? NEVER! So it’s been going Trump’s way for four years but somehow the Democrats believe we’re still living decades ago, with a modicum of decorum.
This story is starting to be reported. Trump’s authoritarian ways. The “New York Times” has published some articles, even Rachel Maddow is talking about authoritarianism now, but the a-word has not penetrated the country at large. It’s frightening. I engage with highly educated people who believe this is going to be a fair election and if we just get the vote out Biden will win and it’ll all be hunky-dory. IT’S NOT GOING TO GO DOWN THAT WAY!

And never forget, the people on television, the reporters, the anchors, and the reporters for the papers, they’re still getting paid, in some cases handsomely. They don’t know what it’s like to have no cash coming in, living on the financial edge.

But if you say all this who do you get complaints from? THE LEFT! It’s astounding, the left elite, and the party and the media are controlled by the elite, tells everybody to just shut up and get behind Biden, who can’t even fight when the lane is wide open. WHO IS GOING TO FIGHT TRUMP!

Trump is living in bizarroworld. He thinks he can debate next week. Forget his cognitive abilities, people won’t go to movie theatres, do you think everybody is willing to show up to get infected by Trump? And, the left will pull back and the right will make hay of this, that Biden is a wimp, who is afraid.

The last four days have been a lesson. That Trump defines the debate, not the left. And he makes truth. And if it’s untrue, that’s just your opinion, because facts are just opinions anyway, right?

That’s right, for days the left wing media followed Trump’s every move, the penumbra, what the doctors had to say, who would be in charge of the government if Trump had to pass the baton. But all their scenarios came to naught. Trump rose from the near-dead MORE POWERFUL THAN HE WAS BEFORE. After all, he looked Covid-19 in the eye and BEAT IT! Talk about a hero!

Give Pelosi credit, she won’t cave in to the right with a substandard stimulus bill that won’t solve most people’s problems but the truth is the Republicans keep blaming the economic crisis on her, on the left! It’s like offering ten grand for a new Mercedes-Benz, is the seller supposed to take it?

And sure, the left has commentators, but those in power, those in charge, just don’t stand up, they don’t rally the troops, they look like they’re afraid.

Schumer should say that the Democrats will give no consent in the Senate, which means no business can be done, which means Amy Coney Barrett can’t be confirmed, literally impossible. All Schumer has to do is push the button, BUT HE’S AFRAID OF ALIENATING POTENTIAL VOTERS! Come on, the right, Trump himself has no problem completely stopping the federal government, and the truth is his believers still believe. Just like the anti-Trump people are never going to vote for Joe. THERE ARE NO UNDECIDEDS!

In baseball it’s all about the data. But the DNC doesn’t believe in the data. Rachel Bitecofer says at most there are one to two percent who are undecided and it’s all about energizing the base and getting out the vote, but like Casey Stengel or some other alta kacher manager the DNC and its minions keep playing by their gut, looking at history, when the truth is you can’t win in baseball today without sabermetrics, it’s literally impossible, the game itself has changed. But these are the same people castigating tech, refusing to update their smartphones, giving crap to the voting age people on TikTok. The DNC is so invested in the past that it can be creamed by Trump. And elite boomers too. They think it’s still the last century, when that’s decades past.

You’ve got to make the public aware of Trump’s faux pas. Because public opinion must be on your side when Trump tries to steal the election. So far, all we are hearing is his side, to the point where even those on the left are susceptible to his bloviating about the flaws in mail-in ballots. Where is the concomitant story on the left? We don’t hear Joe Biden talking trash, saying every damn day that we’ve voted with absentee ballots for years with no significant problem. No, he and his handlers are just sitting on their hands, hoping and praying they can win in November.

Ain’t gonna happen folks. Do you think the man who truly believes he’s superior, who has lauded everybody from Putin to Xi to Kim Jong-un, is just gonna roll over and pass the baton? NO WAY! That’s not how they do it and that’s not how he’s gonna do it. And I hate to tell you this, but he’s got the power. Hell, why not declare martial law, and say the whole country is on lockdown and nothing can change. Sure, you can challenge him in court, but that hasn’t worked so far, the “New York Times” got the tax returns, not the system.

Trump says he feels STRONGER! Your head might be spinning, but his base believes it and since everything’s behind closed doors with a news blackout, it appears that he is, irrelevant of the truth.

Oh, that’s another thing that’s gone out the window, truth.

Vaccines are not the only way we can save our economy, return to normal life. Geofencing could do it. Requiring everybody to stay in the same place. Never mind tracking, which has helped so much in South Korea. Oh, but that’s right, we don’t want to impinge on anybody’s FREEDOMS! Meanwhile, a great percentage of Americans are afraid to leave the house. But, if they did, and wore masks, that also would go a long way towards eradicating Covid.

But NO! Biden can’t take a hard stand, can’t throw the long ball, because he’s afraid of alienating those people who are gonna vote for Trump anyway. No, you take a stand and you own it, you double-down on it, but it seems only Trump can do that today.

This election is about democracy. Believe me, those voting for Biden need no further inspiration, the horse race has been long over. But, the left needs to set the tone, get the public on its side for when the inevitable shenanigans begin in November. And if Trump concedes defeat? It’s just like war-gaming for the next virus, you prepare for the possibilities, especially the one Trump keeps telling us about over and over and over again.

We’re gonna have to fight for this country. ARE YOU WITH ME?

And the cradle will no longer rock.

That’s my favorite Van Halen song. It sounds so alive, but Eddie Van Halen isn’t.

He paid his dues. You’ve got to be a virtuoso. When no one is watching, no one is paying attention, you’re on a mission.

And then they started knocking around town. Most bands fermented in their local burb and ultimately pulled up roots and moved to Hollywood. Van Halen started here. And you could see them all the time. At clubs like the Starwood or Gazzarri’s, which never featured stars, just those on the way up or those who would never make it. The stars played the Whisky, the Troubadour, the Roxy. You went to the Starwood and Gazzarri’s to rock, to hang with like-minded people, it was a niche, and few broke out of it.

So Gene Simmons decided to pony up for a demo. We knew because we heard it on KROQ. “Runnin’ With The Devil.”

But still, Van Halen was stuck in no-man’s land. Everybody in L.A. knew them, but no one outside Tinseltown did. One wondered if their moment was gonna pass.

And it was not an act that played nicely with others. As in it didn’t always fit. Van Halen were born to be headliners. I saw them opening for Nils Lofgren at the Santa Monica Civic before the first album came out. David Lee Roth resembled no one so much as Jim Dandy, of the execrable Black Oak Arkansas. A larger than life cartoon that was playing to the back row of the arena even though we were in a theatre. As for Eddie Van Halen’s guitar, it was so loud and I was so close that it all washed over me, I didn’t get it.

Until “Van Halen II.” When the clerks at Rhino Records were testifying how great Eddie was, and they didn’t like anybody unless they were obscure, and someone playing this kind of music? It perked up my ears.

So, they were always around.

I took a class with Jim Rissmiller, he’s gone now too, about concert promotion. He brought in Noel Monk, the band’s manager at the time, and Noel filled us in on “Diver Down,” which was imminent. But it was “1984” that broke the band wide, I mean to everybody.

And David Lee Roth thought he was the act, but it was always Eddie Van Halen, always. Van Halen could continue with a new lead singer, but not without Eddie. Van Halen was one of the very few bands that could succeed at the same level with a new lead singer, that’s testimony to Van Halen’s skills. Sammy Hagar has the pipes, but look at the venues Hagar’s playing now.

But back to “1984.” It was released on New Year’s Day, when at the time no one put out any music in January whatsoever. And it dominated the airwaves. “Jump” was in the jukebox at the Rainbow, it was played over and over that spring and summer, long after it had left the airwaves.

And of course Van Halen was supercharged by MTV. But somehow they truly bridged the gap. Most of the classic rockers, those with careers before the music television service, did performance videos, where they stood still, Van Halen jumped around, to the point where Eddie had to get his hips replaced.

Actually, my favorite track on “1984” is “I’ll Wait.” That was one of the album’s breakthroughs. Not only was Eddie a star on guitar, he mastered the keys too, he could add new sounds, he wanted to grow.

And Dave went on to sing about “California Girls” as the Van Halen brothers and Michael Anthony licked their wounds and then two years later, the newly configured Van Hagar came out with “5150.”

The hit was “Why Can’t This Be Love.” The work track, the one that came out in advance. And at first it was different, you didn’t quite get it, but then you couldn’t get enough of it, you played it over and over again.

It was still the vinyl era. I bought the LP the day it came out. And it’s very good. At this point its most famous, most played cut, is “Dreams,” which could never be done with Dave, but my favorite opens the second side, “Best of Both Worlds.” It was the riff and the dynamics. From loud to understated. I tingle as I listen right now. This wasn’t pure balls to the wall, it mixed in-your-face with subtle, twisting and turning along the way.

And if you watch the video live from New Haven, not only can you see Eddie play the notes effortlessly, you see him moving in time, dancing at the front of the stage and the effect is one of pure, unmitigated joy. Isn’t that the point, to let the sound elevate your mood, to take you to heaven right here on earth?

Van Halen – Best Of Both Worlds (From “Live Without A Net” New Haven, USA 1986)

And Sammy’s manager, Ed Leffler lifted the band to new financial heights. They were true superstars. They continued while everyone else faded.

As for the ill-fated encore with Gary Cherone, let’s forget it, everyone else has.

But we can never forget what came before.

Van Halen hooked up with Ted Templeman and redid “Runnin’ With the Devil” and it was all over the radio in L.A.

Eddie Van Halen lived his life like there was no tomorrow. As did those caught up in the sound. To the point there are tons of old fans scraping by, they never expected the sound to die.

And it turned out the simple life wasn’t that simple. Once you made the record you went on the endless road, where you got high and got laid but it was never enough and you could not get off the treadmill and Eddie got further into drink to cope. It’s hard to be a hero when you’re shy and you’re not sure if people truly understand you.

As for Jamie cryin’…the bands did not want to get stuck, they were reaching for the brass ring, settling down to a traditional life was not in the cards, you made it or died trying, there was no safety net.

And Eddie could make covers his own, but it was always the originals that gripped you, you truly wanted to dance the night away. And when you did you were singing along at the top of your lungs, even if you couldn’t hear yourself, because you bonded with the sound, it was your sound, your life. We all wanted some. As for Junior’s grades…school didn’t help you in rock and roll, it was religion, not something you could learn in class, you were either bitten by the bug or you were not, and those of us who were needed heroes to put our faith in, like Eddie Van Halen.

So where have all the good times gone?

That’s what I want to know. They evaporated. Rod Stewart sold out and sang the Great American Songbook which a rock fan might have heard on the way up, but never wanted to hear again. We believed, we put our faith in you, you weren’t supposed to let us down. It was love with Van Halen. We were looking for something to fill the hole and Eddie always did.

Did Eddie finish what he started?

I guess he did, but it doesn’t feel that way. We expected him to pull through. We expected to see him on the boards again.

And Eddie forged his own path. You know if you see his original Frankenstein guitar. If you owned it you wouldn’t let it leave your bedroom, it appeared that fragile. But in Eddie’s hands not only was it solid, it emanated the elixir of life, that’s what music provides when it’s done right, and Van Halen did it right.

What can I tell you. Everybody on the inside knew Eddie was sick. But he was sick for so long it looked like he would always be with us. But now he’s not.

And Eddie had a reputation for being off-putting, but the truth was he was just gun-shy, that’s how you get when you’ve been ripped-off and pushed around so much, some people embrace stardom, others know to put it on a shelf, they know who they are, and they don’t want the accolades to change who they are.

And first and foremost Eddie Van Halen was a musician. He’d be silent and uncomfortable, but if you got him into conversation, if he trusted you, he’d light up, he’d talk a mile a minute about music, he was passionate. That’s the essence of a great artist, that passion, the quest, which has got more to do with the music than the fame, the fame is just a byproduct.

So we expect the classic rockers to die. After all, many are pushing eighty. But Eddie Van Halen came from the second generation, he didn’t make it in the sixties but the seventies, and he knew what came before, he’d digested the Beatles, unlike today’s rockers he knew about melody and song structure.

But we don’t expect anybody from the second generation to die yet, unless it’s an accident, or…

The Big C.

It knows no limits, no matter how rich you are, oftentimes no matter how healthy you eat and live, it can still get you, it can still bite you in the ass.

Now one of the great things about being a musician is if you do it right your work sustains. And the work of so many of the bands of the seventies and eighties has already been forgotten, but not Van Halen, never Van Halen.

And there will be no more Van Halen. Without Eddie you just can’t do it, no one can replace him. Didn’t we learn that with Dave, with his revolving door of axemen? You see it isn’t solely about skill, it’s something more than that, it’s inspiration. Being able to transcend what has come before and create something new. To the point where Eddie Van Halen has a place in the same cadre of guitarists as Clapton, Page and Beck. Like Jimi Hendrix before him, Eddie Van Halen tested the limits, came up with a new sound. Suddenly everybody was tapping, trying to re-create “Eruption.” But the key is to come up with it first, to innovate, to push the envelope for the thrill of it all.

And it wasn’t only guys who were fans, but girls too, which wasn’t always the case with these bands. And Eddie married America’s sweetheart and looked like he was living the life, but life is more complicated than that.

Janie got Eddie clean. She sat him on the couch and said he was going to do rehab her way. And it stuck. But you can use all the bullets in your arsenal and still not beat the Big C.

And now I don’t want to end this. I could write about Van Halen forever. And I have, many a time.

And there’s such exuberance in tracks like “And the Cradle Will Rock…”

And such gravitas in numbers like “Love Walks In.”

It’s a conundrum. Eddie could do more than one thing, it was fascinating to follow the evolution.

But now it’s done.

But on hot summer nights to come we’ll still have that mellifluous sound of his guitar coming out of dashboards, out of earbuds. Van Halen was the sound of life, how can Eddie be dead?

I’m in shock.