In the not too distant future, so much of the music of the sixties and seventies is going to be forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to keep it alive.<\/p>\n
Last week’s podcast is about Gordon Lightfoot.\u00c2\u00a0 I tell the story of meeting him at Canadian Music Week with my buddy Jake Gold, but really most of the podcast is taken up with stories of my family.\u00c2\u00a0 Which you might not be interested in.<\/p>\n
So, if you don’t care about me, download "Sundown", "If You Could Read My Mind", "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and my new favorite, "Song For A Winter’s Night".<\/p>\n
But if you want to hear about my father, listening to "Sundown" in his piece of shit Montego as he went into George’s drugstore, or, my trip to Duluth and Lake Superior, tune in.<\/p>\n
All we’ve got is our stories.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what our lives are comprised of.\u00c2\u00a0 The physical totems don’t ultimately mean much.\u00c2\u00a0 Live in a big house, drive a Ferrari, your life is empty if you can’t sit down with your buddies and spin a yarn about how it used to be, how you became who you are.<\/p>\n
About fifteen years ago, I lost my ability to tell my story.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t think anybody was listening.<\/p>\n
I’d like to tell you I’ve recovered, and that I’m an open book if you meet me.\u00c2\u00a0 But that would be untrue.\u00c2\u00a0 If you ask, if I truly feel you’re listening, maybe I can get started.<\/p>\n
But I remember the days of yore.\u00c2\u00a0 College.\u00c2\u00a0 Around a campfire on Independence Pass, high above Aspen, Colorado.\u00c2\u00a0 When I could reveal who I was, where I came from.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, I only seem to be able to do it in writing.\u00c2\u00a0 But on the way to Burbank about a month ago, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" popped into my brain, and I got inspired.\u00c2\u00a0 I laid my story down.<\/p>\n
It’s more Spalding Gray than even Jim Ladd, never mind Ryan Seacrest.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you listen, just imagine we’re in the hall of our dorm, before we’ve embarked on our path, before we’re tied up in our careers and families, sharing our stories.<\/p>\n
Just go to the iTunes Music Store and search on "Lefsetz".\u00c2\u00a0 You can subscribe to the Rhinocast there.<\/p>\n
Meantime, I’m listening to "Song For A Winter’s Night"…<\/p>\n
If I could know within my heart Some people are aggressive.\u00c2\u00a0 They put it out there.\u00c2\u00a0 They hunt for prey, and maybe if you’re physically desirable enough, you get captured.<\/p>\n But what about the rest of us?\u00c2\u00a0 Not so self-assured, not so confident?\u00c2\u00a0 We have this deep yearning, to connect.\u00c2\u00a0 But so fearful of rejection, we hold back.\u00c2\u00a0 And stir in our loneliness.<\/p>\n But sometimes you sense something in another person.\u00c2\u00a0 That interior monologue, that same desire to speak their mind, tell their stories.\u00c2\u00a0 And you take a risk.\u00c2\u00a0 And make the connection.<\/p>\n They call this love.<\/p>\n What you see celebrities doing on television, on TMZ, that’s pairing off, that’s not love.\u00c2\u00a0 Love is a connection of the soul.\u00c2\u00a0 A feeling that someone gets you, and wants to continue to get you.<\/p>\n We wait for this.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we listen to music.\u00c2\u00a0 We fall in love with songs, those who purvey them.\u00c2\u00a0 Because these artists, they feel what we feel.<\/p>\n "SexyBack" might be a hit, but if it touches your soul, you’re a robot.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s when this business got fucked up, when it became about the sheen, the exterior rather than the interior.<\/p>\n If I could only have you near You eventually get to a point where nothing needs to be said.\u00c2\u00a0 The physical closeness, it generates a warmth, that you can depend on, like an animal.<\/p>\n But until you achieve that, it’s like being out in a snowstorm.<\/p>\n Gordon Lightfoot is singing from a house in the wilderness.<\/p>\n And I am too.\u00c2\u00a0 I only hope that I inspire you to open up, and tell your stories, because, like I said, that’s all we’ve got.<\/p>\n I’m trying.\u00c2\u00a0 You should too.\u00c2\u00a0 Say what’s deep inside. You’ll be stunned at what might come back.<\/p>\n
That you were lonely too<\/em><\/p>\n
To breathe a sigh or two<\/em><\/p>\n\n