Who knew Sylvia Tyson wrote "You Were On My Mind"?<\/p>\n
When I woke up this morning Ain’t that love!<\/p>\n You know how it is, you meet someone new.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a rush of blood to the head, you tingle, you don’t want to part.\u00c2\u00a0 And the next morning, you wake up and the first thing you think of is them.\u00c2\u00a0 You wonder if it’s real.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you realize it is, that it really happened, you get a shiteating grin on your face.<\/p>\n Now "You Were On My Mind" is about the back end.\u00c2\u00a0 When you break up, when you just can’t get over them.\u00c2\u00a0 ANYBODY who says they’re over somebody right away is a fucking idiot.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re animals.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s human nature.\u00c2\u00a0 Closeness just can’t be cut off that quickly.\u00c2\u00a0 The hangover, the after effect, is enough to make you go back to the well again and again, until you finally get the gumption, gain enough power, to resist.<\/p>\n But "You Were On My Mind" does not have a downbeat feel.\u00c2\u00a0 It contains a euphoria.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe that’s just music, we were all so INTO it back in the mid-sixties, glued to our transistors.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to the countdown, listening for the debuts.\u00c2\u00a0 The acts came out of nowhere, and we were open to them.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody didn’t have narrow tastes, we were open to ANYTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 And the passion and the joy in this music, that’s what separated us from our parents.\u00c2\u00a0 We weren’t listening to offend them, to evidence our differences, to piss them off, we were just that INTO THE TUNES!\u00c2\u00a0 The radio was a Pied Piper!<\/p>\n You can go on allmusic.com and read the history of the We Five.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s interesting, but it didn’t matter to us back then.\u00c2\u00a0 All we knew was there was a 45, with a blue label, if I remember correctly, that we had to buy and spin again and again, just to get that HIT!<\/p>\n So, "You Were On My Mind" was performed on Sunday night by Jim Cuddy and Oh Susanna.\u00c2\u00a0 They took the stage and started to RIP!\u00c2\u00a0 And like a sixties freight train, we were off and running, everybody in my row was singing along.\u00c2\u00a0 Putting our heads in the air to sing the chorus:<\/p>\n Hey I got troubles, whoa-oh There was a war in Vietnam.\u00c2\u00a0 And racial unrest.\u00c2\u00a0 All kinds of trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 But we weren’t depressed, we were consumed with the POSSIBILITIES!\u00c2\u00a0 With a guitar and a song, we could change the world.<\/p>\n I’m down with music you can sing.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll leave it at that.<\/p>\n The other highlight of this show was James Taylor singing "Woodstock".<\/p>\n He referenced meeting Joni at the Mariposa Festival, just as Larry LeBlanc had told me the night before.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, James referenced listening to Joni’s debut in the offices of Apple Records.<\/p>\n And after reciting a bit more history, he started picking his guitar.<\/p>\n Do you know that song off of "Flag", the last one, "Sleep Come Free Me"?\u00c2\u00a0 James’ version of "Woodstock" had the same vibe.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the percussive guitar picking.\u00c2\u00a0 That emphasizes the lyrics, James’ voice.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like a ventriloquist and his dummy.\u00c2\u00a0 Two separate forces in close proximity interacting.\u00c2\u00a0 And the effect…cuts you to the bone.<\/p>\n Well I’ve been lying in this dungeon You don’t have to be in prison to be depressed, to feel locked up.<\/p>\n There’s a mainstream, and you find yourself in the backwater.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopelessly out of step, with no chance of getting back into society.<\/p>\n Rehabilitation, ain’t that a laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t do it in jail, and they don’t do it after you’re eighteen, certainly not in your twenties, after you graduate from college.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re on your own.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t pick yourself up by your bootstraps, we don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Commit suicide.\u00c2\u00a0 One less loser to worry about.\u00c2\u00a0 What happened to compassion?\u00c2\u00a0 Is society only made up of winners?<\/p>\n Just remember your number Imagination.\u00c2\u00a0 We do our best to drum it out of our populace.\u00c2\u00a0 Just get in line, do what you’re supposed to, be just like everybody else.<\/p>\n Maybe that’s why we revere our artists, they dare to dream.<\/p>\n Diane Warren doesn’t dream.<\/p>\n And neither does Max Martin.<\/p>\n They’re doing a job.<\/p>\n But when you dig down deep and open your soul, for others to hear, to experience, then you’re doing it the way they used to.<\/p>\n We believed in our artists.\u00c2\u00a0 None more than Joni Mitchell.<\/p>\n When Joni took the stage, she started to tell a tale, of growing up, meeting a songwriter for the very first time.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone previous to her had just given thanks and accepted the award.\u00c2\u00a0 But in a few words, Joni had us hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 We were back with her on the prairie, we could SEE IT!<\/p>\n That’s what an artist does.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t worry about convention, but paints according to what he or she feels.\u00c2\u00a0 And the resulting truth resonates.<\/p>\n I came upon a child of God We’re all children of God.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all in this together.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the Woodstock Nation was about.\u00c2\u00a0 It didn’t last for long, but if you were black or white or yellow, or tall or short or fat, it didn’t matter, you belonged.\u00c2\u00a0 We all want to belong.<\/p>\n Then can I walk beside you In an era of gated communities and private jets no one wants to walk beside ANYBODY!\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to make enough money to rise above.\u00c2\u00a0 Your brother?\u00c2\u00a0 FUCK HIM!<\/p>\n And all these years later, with the polar ice caps melting, we’ve got the same environmental issues.\u00c2\u00a0 And we want to be part of change, we want to make a difference.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than shopping after 9\/11, we wanted to THROW IN!\u00c2\u00a0 Won’t ANYBODY let us throw in??<\/p>\n Well maybe it is just the time of year Do you know who you are?<\/p>\n I don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, when I was eighteen, I knew everything.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever since, I’ve been learning how dumb I am.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what knowledge does, it makes you feel dumb.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the more you know, the more you realize you DON’T know!\u00c2\u00a0 But those in power would rather anesthetize the way that we feel, keep us in front of the idiot box.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not even any news ON the evening news.\u00c2\u00a0 And on the cable channels, they’re possessed with kidnappings and other crimes.\u00c2\u00a0 Our society, our country’s direction, its moral fabric, those issues are not raised.\u00c2\u00a0 For then it would be learned how far we have to go.<\/p>\n By the time we got to Woodstock Joni Mitchell was not at Woodstock.\u00c2\u00a0 Her manager convinced her not to go, even though she was booked.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, she might get caught up in the mud, she might miss her TV appearance at the beginning of the week.<\/p>\n Don’t listen to your handlers.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to what’s inside.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the sixties taught us.\u00c2\u00a0 Question convention, and authority.\u00c2\u00a0 Investigate for yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 Doing what felt good meant trusting your gut.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re going against your gut, you’re going in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n Missing Woodstock for some bullshit TV show…<\/p>\n But maybe it was her absence that allowed Joni to be able to write "Woodstock".\u00c2\u00a0 You see the best artists are observers.\u00c2\u00a0 From a distance, she could divine the event’s essence.\u00c2\u00a0 And having done this, distill it into song.\u00c2\u00a0 Joni felt left out, she wanted to be there, and this song is evidence of her desire.\u00c2\u00a0 To belong.<\/p>\n We are stardust We’re so far from the garden it isn’t funny.<\/p>\n Radio and labels whored out to a system that excludes the public.\u00c2\u00a0 One that doesn’t work.<\/p>\n We need to get out of Iraq, and we certainly don’t need to go into Iran.\u00c2\u00a0 Why trust these old men in Washington?\u00c2\u00a0 What do they know that you don’t?\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t think you’re equal to those in power, then you’re abdicating your right as a human being to have a part in your destiny.<\/p>\n There is no center.<\/p>\n At that center is a garden.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got to get back there.<\/p>\n James’ performance of "Woodstock" was SPELLBINDING!<\/p>\n Although a communal experience, it touched each and every one of us individually, with the power of song.<\/p>\n Hell, you can hear his arrangement if you’re savvy in P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a performance from the Howard Stern show floating around.\u00c2\u00a0 But no, you’d better not log on, you might get SUED!\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got to keep the music from the people.\u00c2\u00a0 Only authorized performances should be available.\u00c2\u00a0 We must have control.<\/p>\n Hell, I urge Apple to make James Taylor’s performance of "Woodstock" available as a download, IMMEDIATELY!<\/p>\n That’s the power of technology.\u00c2\u00a0 The power to change the world, to make life better for Earth’s inhabitants.<\/p>\n That’s the battle we’re in today.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the sixties all over again.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids love technology.\u00c2\u00a0 They take pleasure in its advantages.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t surf and IM and visit social networking sites to piss off their elders, but because it’s SO DAMN EXCITING!<\/p>\n This same excitement used to be in music.\u00c2\u00a0 Our heroes were musicians, not coders.\u00c2\u00a0 Their power was in evidence Sunday night.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who knew Sylvia Tyson wrote "You Were On My Mind"? When I woke up this morningYou were on my mind Ain’t that love! You know how it is, you meet someone new.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a rush of blood to the head, you tingle, you don’t want to part.\u00c2\u00a0 And the next morning, you wake up and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-aR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You were on my mind<\/em><\/p>\n
_I got worries, whoa-oh
_I got wounds to bind<\/em><\/p>\n
Since I was eighteen
Ten lonely years of my life taken
I’ve been living in the pages of a magazine
It breaks my heart to awaken<\/em><\/p>\n
And abandon your name
And hold on to your imagination<\/em><\/p>\n
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me<\/em><\/p>\n
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning<\/em><\/p>\n
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who I am
But you know life is for learning<\/em><\/p>\n
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation<\/em><\/p>\n
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden<\/em><\/p>\n