Dear Friends,
My birthday weekend was bittersweet. On the brighter side, I made a new friend in Denver, and he is a partner in a record store and the singer in a great band. I’m really hoping our paths continue to cross. The shows were fun, and a great learning experience and I’ve now played music in two new locations.
As a band, we had a really good time and got to know each other better. I’m really thankful to be playing music with those guys. By the time we play our next shows, which are 11-8 through 11-10 in California, we will be even better together. For having three practices and two shows, we are in a good place.
On the bummer side is that I really missed Rhondi a lot this weekend. It felt like she should have been there with me. I’ve been to Colorado twice now without here and it feels wrong. I also realized last night when I was driving down I-25 that the distraction of the weekend allowed the floodgates of grief to open when things got quiet. I was pretty sad as I drove while everyone else was sleeping.
I miss my wife. I miss Doug. I miss the way things were.
*****
Some highlights, though…
We got a very late start, and I started my birthday celebration just outside of Phoenix. We drove through the night and talked about all kinds of things and laughed. I was very excited to go to Denver as a member of The FreeZe (capital Z on purpose).
Neither Dave or I could sleep in the car, so we just sort of soldiered on and watched the sunrise in New Mexico. It was pretty epic. We hit a gas station just outside of Albuquerque and got some breakfast burritos that hit the spot. Little did I know it would be my last meal for about 18 hours.
That sounds worse than it was.
I got a few catnaps in during the ride through New Mexico and enjoyed talking to everyone. We made it to Denver around 3:30PM and stayed pretty busy. We had to pick up some merch and then do a sound check, then go back to the motel and collect Cliff for the show.
We stayed in a Motel 6 that was really pretty nice and super cheap. It was about 20 minutes from the venue, but it wasn’t a terrible drive once traffic subsided. The HQ is a pretty cool venue in a really neat part of Denver. I liked it a lot.
Unfortunately, the complete lack of sleep caught up with us while we were on stage, and we weren’t as tight as I would have liked to have been. The people seemed to dig it and were stoked that we were there. It is incredibly cool when someone tells you that they have been waiting to see you for years and it is a bucket list show for them.
We finally got some food after the show and even though I dripped pizza oil on some of my favorite jeans, I was okay with everything. It had been a good birthday and I even got to see cousin Bear.
The next day we got up and had some really good Mexican food before going to see my new friend’s record store. After hanging out for about 90 minutes, we headed for Colorado Springs. We didn’t get to go to the Garden of the Gods as we had hoped, but we hung out at the venue and I met another new friend who is a friend of my guy, Michael P., here in town. He was super cool and gave me the new East Bay Ray and the Killer Smiles record.
The venue was small in Colorado Springs, but the people were nice, and it was fun to play a show in a town I have loved for years. We also played really well. That felt great.
We got some food after, again, and I was careful not to spill it on myself. We then got in the van and drove for about 90 minutes or so until everyone fell asleep, and I started getting really tired. We found a dark spot in a truck stop lot and slept til about 6AM MST.
After we got up, we had a lot of laughs, and I drove the whole way home from about an hour north of the Colorado/New Mexico border. I got turned onto a bunch of new music, too. Very stoked on that.
Back to work today, though. Time to make the donuts.
*****
A little over three weeks before I was born, one of my favorite records was released. At just over ¾ of an hour long, The Beatles’ Abbey Road is pretty much a masterpiece. There is not a dull moment on the record, either. The whole thing just rules.
I’ve been racking my brain trying to remember when I first became aware of it.
My dad had a copy, I know that, and the cover, of course, is iconic. I remember telling me how people were trying to read into Paul McCartney not wearing shoes and how it tied into him maybe being dead. I loved that stuff. I’m trying to remember when I got my first copy. It was probably around 1989 when I got my first CD player. I don’t remember buying it on vinyl until I started buying vinyl again in the 2000s.
The first side is a mix of really heavy, groovy stuff like “Come Together” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and the seemingly lighter fare of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Octopus’s Garden.” In between in the wonderfully and powerfully sad “Something” and the syrupy sweet, “Oh! Darling.”
As a bass player, I love “Come Together.” It’s such a great riff. John Lennon’s lyrics are pretty rad, too, and leave you wondering just what the fuck he was talking about around every corner. I’ve wanted to cover it so many times, but never have. It’s hard to take Beatles’ songs and do them justice, I think, and I would hate to do a shitty version of “Come Together.”
“Something” is one that always makes me feel like giving my love a kiss or a hug. It’s a terribly beautiful song and if you love someone, you can’t help but think about them when you hear it. George Harrison knocked it out of the park here and it’s a high point on an album full of high points.
I loved “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” as a kid. What kid doesn’t like that song, right? It’s pretty dark and humorous when you listen as an adult, especially with ears that understand cancel culture these days. McCartney would probably have gotten some flak for writing a song about killing someone with a hammer these days.
As mentioned, “Oh! Darling” is very sweet and easy. It’s a kind of tribute, or at least it sounds like a tribute, to 50s music. “Octopus’s Garden” is another one I have loved my whole life. It’s so catchy and fun for anyone who wants to sing along. Ringo Starr wrote this one with some help from Harrison.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” has that great, heavy as fuck guitar riff in it. The whole song is just so big sounding and they it just slams the door on you at the end. Pretty brilliant, if you ask me. I read somewhere that when they mixed this one, it was the last time all four Beatles were in the studio together. That’s pretty heavy, too.
For me, side two is my favorite side. The songs are way shorter, and it just makes me happy once it gets going. “Here Comes the Sun” is a delight and I love playing it for my students at school. They love it. Things get kind of heavy on “Because” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” at least for the first minute or so of it.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…all good children go to heaven.”
This is where things take off, though. As we morph “Sun King” the party is really getting started. I’ve listened to "Sun King” a few times over the years after a night of staying up way too late and watching the sun come up. It’s kind of perfect for that.
Then “Mean Mr. Mustard” drops the hammer and we roll into my favorite part of the record, “Polythene Pam” into “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” and then on to “Golden Slumbers.” As a punk rock fan, this is about the punkest The Beatles ever sounded, especially on “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.” The guitars sound so great on those two.
I don’t know how many mixed tapes and CDs I put that little run on to over the years. It was a lot, though. Just wonderful stuff, really, and if you aren’t familiar, do yourself a favor and listen to it now. “She said she’d always been a dancer…”
“Golden Slumbers” always gets me, too. It just does. It reminds me of being a young kid and loving singing along with it. The transition to “Carry That Weight” is brilliant. It’s another kick ass moment on this kick ass record.
Just when you think the fun is over, “The End” is there to remind you that the band could rock out with the best of them. They could take the piss out of just about any genre and own it. More guitar heroics on this one and Ringo is ruling, too.
I don’t really count “Her Majesty” as a song, but it’s there. Abbey Road is fucking brilliant. I will listen to it as long as my ears work. That’s a guarantee. . Starr, McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon were such an amazing band. The talent and song writing and how they came together was magic. Pure magic, and we are all better off because of them.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Mr. Mustard? Meet AI.
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