Record Stores (#atozchallenge)

I miss my record browsing days.  Flipping through the bins of vinyl albums was an adventure that could absorb hours of my time.---Arlee Bird.

J&R on Park Row, in New York City  (Wikipedia)

 Record Stores

         When I asked "What Does Manhattan Say to You?" I wasn't too surprised by the answer I got from Larry at DiscConnected:

      Having grown up so close to NYC (Philly), a lot of images come to mind.

      However, my most vivid images are of St. Mark's Place in the east village, where I would venture four of five times each year for a CD buying excursion. The stores are gone now, but the block had about eight different stores that would usually yield more treasures than I had any business spending money on.

       The day would usually start at J & R Music World on Park Row, across from the World Trade Center.

      My last trip there was on Friday, September 8, 2001, I believe the same day Ryan Adams filmed his "New York" music video. Sadly, the lower triangle's landscape changed forever a few days later, and that was my last trip to J & R. The village stores closed over the next few years, and now I find my CD's on the internet.

     But I miss those days spent browsing. I had a good friend (Kent) who was also an avid collector, although my collection eclipsed his when his priorities got screwed up and he had offspring.

     I had a job offer in Manhattan at the same time as I took the transfer to Arizona, and I still do not regret it. In my twenties, I would have loved the city life, but by that time, I'd spent ten years on the road (as an auditor) and was ready for a quieter life.

     Still a great place to visit, though.

My Own Music Sprees

         Larry's story is one to which I can totally relate except for the locale.  I would have loved to have shopped those record stores in Manhattan.  I call them record stores even though most of my purchases eventually became cassettes and then later CD's.  My earliest buying excursions would mostly have been shopping the cut-out bins for record albums when I still lived in Tennessee.  If they were cheap then I might buy a number of them in one visit.  However when I was paying full price I'd usually only be able to afford one or two at a time.

        Later on when I began touring with a road show I spent my free time in whatever city I happened to be in scouring the record stores for cassette tapes.   I guess I bought a few thousand cassettes during the 80's.  My favorite place to go cassette shopping was on Younge Street in downtown Toronto.  Since we were paid in Canadian money when we worked in that country I wanted to spend as much money as I could so I didn't have to lose money exchanging to U.S. currency when we returned to the states.   I'd load up on the latest cassettes as well as older music that I had been wanting.  On my off days--we usually had about a week off in Toronto--I'd spend hours in those music stores which were huge.  

       I can easily see myself in Manhattan shopping those same stores that Larry describes.  That is if it were back in the 70's, 80's, or 90's.   Now I very rarely buy any recorded music.  In the nineties I started buying CD's and now have a huge collection that I rarely listen to.  In one sense it's sad to think of all that money I spent on vinyl, cassettes, and CD's.  On the other hand I can think of the hours and hours I spent listening to and enjoying that music.  My hours driving during my road years would have been much less enjoyable had I not had my music to entertain me.

        Have you spent a lot of time in stores browsing for something that you enjoyed?   Do you own much recorded music now?   Can you recall some of your old favorite haunts for buying recorded music?  

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Sweet Ride Home

   

           For starters you might want to first head over to DiscConnected and click on the "Sweet Ride" video for some background music to accompany this blog post.  And while you're there say hi to my ol' pal Larry Cavanaugh.  He's got a great blog that's a great place to hear good music new and old.

            So now you got the music playing and I can tell you what's happening with me.  I'm heading back home to Tennessee again.  This year is the most times I've gone back to Tennessee in the same twelve month span.  This time is just another visit and not a relocation.  I'll be back in Los Angeles in time for the BlogWorld Expo.  I wouldn't want to miss that.

            I'll be driving a rental truck from Phoenix, AZ to Maryville, TN as I help my sister move back to be closer to family.  I've lost count of the number of times I've driven across country, but it's always been enjoyable to me.  The difference this time is that I'll be driving by myself as my two sisters follow in a car.

           As long as I'm able to stop whenever I need to and take a break from driving, I should be fine.  I do pretty well at long distance driving.  Usually I'm in a car with my wife and a good stereo.  I'll miss that part.  But driving alone in a truck that will probably be noisier and slower than my wife's car may actually have some benefits that I can take advantage of.

           For one thing I can plan out blog posts for the future.  I often do this even while driving short distances around town.  With eighteen hundred miles and three full days of driving I should be able to plan out blog posts for the next couple of years or so.  I'll keep a notebook in the truck cab with me so I can jot down my ideas when I take my breaks.  Now with five blogs under my name I'd better be doing some planning.

          Then considering that NaNoWriMo will be starting up shortly after I get back home, some of my thoughts will undoubtedly be drifting in that direction.  In my past two NaNo attempts I didn't start planning anything until the first day of the novel writing challenge.   I was considering taking this same approach this year, but now it looks like I may have a very busy November waiting for me and planning the novel ahead of time might be a helpful strategy.

          Another thing that I know will be on my mind as I'm driving is my BlogWorld Expo mission.  I will want to plan out a strategy of which booths I will want to visit the most and what I will want to learn.   Just a few days after I get back to Los Angeles, I will be facing what will possibly be one of the most intense opportunities for learning as much as I can in two days that I've ever experienced.  Getting psyched up for this event will require good planning if I want to get the most out of it.

         There will be no shortage of things to think about as I drive across country--my life, my job prospects, my family's future.   If I need to rest my brain and let someone else think for me I guess I'll always have the radio.  Unfortunately I won't have any mobile devices like a CD player or an I-pod, so that won't be an option, but I don't think I'll be lacking in things to keep my mind occupied.  Then of course, I should probably pay attention to driving some of the time.

          By now, if you were listening to the "Sweet Ride" song on Larry's DiscConnected blog, the song has probably ended.  If you weren't, maybe you can still hop over to his site and say hello to him.   I guess I'm thinking about Larry because he lives in Phoenix and I'll be in and out of town in such a flurry I won't have time to meet up with him

          For that matter I'd say anyone who lives along Interstate 40 between Holbrook, Arizona and Knoxville, Tennessee could stand along the roadside between today (Friday) and Sunday night and wave as I drive by in the rental truck.  Of course since I don't know exactly where I'll be at what time then that won't be very practical.  But if you do happen to see a rental truck rolling down that highway, just think of me.  Think of me anyway as I take my sweet ride home.

          Have you ever made a cross country move?    Did you rent a truck and move yourself?   Have you gotten to know my buddy Larry at Disconnected yet?


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Top Ten Favorite Bob Dylan Songs

     Talk about last minute posts!  Just heard today (Monday 5/23) that my good friends Larry from DiscConnected and Stephen from Stuffs are doing a small spur of the moment "blogfest".   The premise, in honor of Bob Dylan's 70th birthday, is to name our ten favorite Dylan songs.

       With little thought given to the matter, I've come up with my list, which is all earlier stuff since that's all that immediately comes to mind.  Much of my knowledge of Dylan's music is based on what other artists have recorded since I discovered Dylan the artist after he'd been around for a while.   I will name the songs and the versions that I was initially most familiar with in somewhat chronological order.  Here it is with links to the songs available if you click on the song titles:

It Ain't Me Babe -- I'd heard mention of Bob Dylan in the teen magazines in the early 60's, but had not heard his music.  Then, I heard Johnny Cash's version of  "It Ain't Me Babe" and thought it was utterly cool.  My curiosity about Dylan was stirred and my appreciation of Johnny Cash was secured.

Don't Think Twice It's Alright -- I first heard this song when it was released by The Wonder Who, which was a sort of joke pseudonym of The Four Seasons.  This version was a sort of joke cover version of "Don't Think Twice".   In fact the entire album was almost a joke since one side was cover versions of songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David while the flip side was songs by Dylan.  The Four Seasons singing Dylan?  I was in my early adolescence and this was my first exposure to Dylan.  It wasn't all that bad actually and I was a big Seasons fan back then.

The Times They Are A-Changin' -- Seems like everyone was singing Dylan songs back in the sixties.  I first heard this song as a good time sing along on Beach Boys Party album.  Later the Byrds did a version that I liked even more.

Tears of Rage -- This song was on The Band's Music from Big Pink album.  It's co-written with Richard Manuel, but I'm including it here anyway since it's one of my favorite songs.

I Shall Be Released-- Also from Music from Big Pink, this Dylan song has been oft recorded.

All Along the Watchtower-- I was blown away by the Hendrix version of this Dylan song, but I've come to prefer the mellower sound of Dave Mason's version.

I Want You-- This was one of the first Dylan songs where I actually began to prefer Dylan himself performing his own songs.

Like a Rolling Stone--  It's a good song and I like it.

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again-- This song was always stuck inside of my mind somewhere and then I really began to appreciate it when my buddy Stephen T. McCarthy made me pay closer attention to it.

It's All Over Now Baby Blue--I've saved my favorite for last.  I first heard this song done by one of my favorite bands, the 13th Floor Elevators, and it's still my favorite version--it's so depressing.

        Check Larry's and Stephen's sites (links above) for their lists and to see if maybe some more folks joined in the spur of the moment fun.

         What are your favorite Dylan songs?   Or does Dylan annoy you?  Are you even familiar with any of Dylan's music?


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Lyrical Larry

      My guest today is Larry Cavanaugh, who is Blogging from A to Z on his music blog DisConnected.  He also writes on a more politically oriented blog called Back in the USSR.

       So far Larry is the only blogger I have actually met in person, an event which I wrote about here.  At this time I learned about Larry's talent for writing song lyrics and later I was fortunate to obtain several of his self-published books of lyrics.  After having read this talented man's lyrics I asked him if I could introduce this side of him to my readers.   And now I'd like you to meet Larry Cavanaugh.

    
Can you start out by telling a bit about yourself?


Larry Cavanaugh at age 20



        Born in the Sixties, product of the Seventies. A high school English teacher sparked my interest in writing and introduced me to my favorite musician, Todd Rundgren (more on that below). Entered college as an English major, succumbed to the pressure to find work and graduated with an Accounting major and a writing minor. Continued to write while working on a CPA certificate, travelled the world as an auditor, fell in love and fell out of love a few times, kept writing, got tired of traveling, relocated to Arizona, had one last romance and threw in the towel. Am an avid music collector, and still work in accounting and listen to Todd Rundgren.


How and when did you get started songwriting?

          As a kid, I was always writing stories. They started out as crudely drawn comic books with my friend Chris providing the finishing art, and by junior high they were mostly science fiction and fantasy (a reflection of what I was reading at the time). In high school, I encounter Tom Williams, an English teacher who taught me that even though most of my friends were not achieving academically, it did not make me less their friend to perform at my best in class, helped me grow up, and inspired me to write my first poem



         He brought into class an album entitled Ra by a band called Utopia, and played the eighteen minute song “Singring And The Glass Guitar (An Electrified Fairy Tale).” The point of this exercise was to show the class that a short story (the assignment) could take many forms. I loved this album, and went out and purchased it that weekend, beginning a love affair with the music of Todd Rundgren that continues to this day. While I ended up writing a short story in the traditional sense (I was having trouble getting the fantasy lyrics to work), I started writing song lyrics pretty much as fast as I could churn them out.

Where do you find your inspiration?



A more recent photo of
Larry Cavanaugh



            Interesting question, and I’m not sure I really know. I think I need strong emotions to inspire me. My writing has dropped off precipitously the last decade, which coincidentally began with the ending of a romantic relationship that had been on-and-off for some fifteen years, and I was very much in love with the lady. When I started writing as a teen, I was “in love” every other week (like most teenagers have a tendency to think), so the words came easily. I was also passionate about other things, so I tried my hand at protest songs, songs about finding your path in life, etc. I lost two people close to me in my thirties, and there were a lot of songs that came from the grief that asked questions about what it (life) all means.

         Interestingly enough, depressed moods do not inspire me to write (not that I get depressed all that often).     It really seems to be emotions born of passion (love, anger, jealousy) that fuel my fire, so to speak.     Maybe I’ve had it too good the last decade…


Do you have an idea in your head of how you'd like a song to sound and what styles do you prefer?

          Sometimes, yes-the melody will come to me and the words will just flow. Sometimes a line will occur to me and I’ll build the rest of the lyric around it. The styles are usually classic rock, ranging from ersatz Springsteen to arena rock, with a lot of Rundgren influences thrown in (big surprise there, huh?). As much as I like progressive rock, you really need to be more of a musician for that. I will often have progressive ideas, but since lyrics are secondary, there’s nothing to anchor those ideas in my mind. Most of the lyrics you’ve read have a melody that I still remember, for some as many as thirty years later.

Have any of your lyrics ever been actually put to music and recorded or performed?

          Only three have been recorded (to my knowledge), two in demo form and one was the flip side of an indie 45 release by a Philly band back in the 80’s. That’s the only one that I am sure of that has been performed live. Finding musicians to collaborate with has always been somewhat harder than I’d expected.

In your thinking, what is the difference between lyrics and poetry.

            Poetry has some fairly rigid rules around structure. Sure there is free form poetry, but usually the expectation is there for a certain rhyme pattern, and certain metre. You can get away with a little more with a song lyric-you can cheat on rhymes easier, and squeeze in extra syllables in a line since the singer will just make it fit to the music. Try that with a poem and it will often throw the reader off.

          Of course, that’s my opinion-there are a lot of poets out there who would disagree, I’m sure.


         When I started writing, I had fantasies of making a living at songwriting. Sadly, there’s not much of a market for poetry, and most poets that see their work in print are self-published. Nothing wrong with that (I did it with the lyric collections), but hard to pay the rent that way.


         Now if some aspiring young musician were to turn just one song lyric into a hit…

Can we obtain any of your lyric books and how would we go about it?

Well, I have a few left. I guess one could e-mail me at lmcava@yahoo.com with the subject line LYRIC BOOK and we’d work something out. If there was enough interest, I’d see about getting additional copies printed.

What are your writing plans for the future?

Lately, it’s been mostly checks. I’ve gotten quite good at it.

Can we see an example of one of your lyrics?

          I wrote this when my younger sister was dying of cancer. She was one of my best friends, and this was a dark time for me. It was hard to see any sense, or order, in life when one of the best people I knew was dying (she died two months later at age 34) from a disease that I can only characterize as evil.      

                  I SEE HEAVEN

I saw a man with a sign that read ‘God Is Dead’
As I pondered this, I scratched my head
Guess he had a point-how else do you explain AIDS?
Then I thought and I thought and I thought some more
Thought so much ‘till my brain got sore
Had the man lost his faith? Maybe he was just afraid.


Cause if you look closely you can see God’s hand
In a flower’s bloom, in every blade of grass
In the light of a full moon-in every sun rise
I see heaven when I look in your eyes


Heard a lady on the subway screaming “Where is God?”
As I listened to her, I found it odd
But with cancer in the world, who am I to debate?
Then I got to my knees and I prayed for a sign
But I got no answer or else I was blind
I was scared for a moment-afraid we were too late


Then I heard a bird’s song in the morning light
And knew that God was near day or night
Every rainbow is a sign of His grace
I see heaven when I look at your face


(acoustic guitar break with harmonica)


And if you search hard enough you will see the signs
Of the miracles that God has left behind
In every wonder of beauty He placed His clues
I see heaven when I look at you


Copyright 1998 by Laurence M. Cavanaugh


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          People like to say “God has a plan.” I don’t believe that. Yet, I do believe that there is something we can learn from everything. Her suffering and death taught me to live life a day at a time. As clichéd as that sounds, you really should enjoy what you’re doing today, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. I wrote this for Mary Anne, who is still missed more than a decade later, and for Eileen, who was a pretty important part of my life at the time.

        This is intended to be played folksy/bluesy, with an acoustic guitar, accompanied by a harmonica.




      Thank you Larry for taking some time to share your lyrical talents with us today.  Be sure to stop by to say hello to Larry at DiscConnected.    And if you're looking for something deeper and more controversial visit his other blog Back in the USSR.   Either way be sure to let him know you learned about his blogs here on Tossing It Out.




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