Philosophy

The road never taken

Is always idyllic

Smooth paved,no pot holes or traffic.

A pleasant drive through the country

On a nice sunny day

The door never opened

Hides the treasures of the world

Leprechaun gold, the Holy Grail

The answers of Life, the Universe and Everything!

Behind the still closed door

The one person you could never approach

Who made your heart ache with longing, desire

Whom you could never confess your love and devotion

Was the one who held the key to your happiness

Just waiting for you to ask

The one you said you didn’t love

You liked but didn’t “like like”

You “loved but weren’t in love with”

That must have been the one and only “One”

And you missed it

The glass of beer, wine or whiskey

Is always half empty in need of refill

Victory is always fleeting

Defeat always a heavy stone

And history is what happens to someone else

We come into the world a soul now in body

Surrounded by strangers

Who become family and friends, companions and rivals

We share a brief flash of time

And the body dies, what of our souls?

I wish I was someone who put a song in your heart

Put a smile under your nose

Made your eyes sparkle and shine

Warmed your cold, lit your darkness

Eased your worries, gave you courage

Freed you to fly higher than you ever imagined

I wish I was someone you wanted

To navigate and ride shotgun on your adventures

To share your laughs, celebrations and triumphs

To keep your secrets, the good and the bad,

To know your loves, hates and favorite things

I wish that I was someone who excited you

Made your heart beat faster

Or skip beats here and there

Made you nervous with anticipation

And sigh with contentment

Someone who you wanted to dream about

Someone to share your dreams with

Self Loathing

 

Never tried - didn’t believe I could.

Didn’t believe, never felt worthy.

Didn’t understand and couldn’t imagine.

Saw who I was not, what I did not have.

See the beauty and good in you all

And told you and encouraged belief

But never did see what you saw

When you describe me to me.

Envy your boldness, confidence and courage

Because I have refused to reach out, to hold on

Or leap in faith

When I had things that I wanted in reach

Day after night, night after day

Beat myself down for choices made and not made.

Self-tried, convicted and dammed for things I did

Haunted by the things I did not

Remember only the thorns of the rose

And the rain that makes rainbows

The so longs and goodbyes after hellos

And the cloud behind the silver lining

A world colored only black, white and grey

A lonely world inside my four walls

Lonelier surrounded by people in a working cube

No one hears my silent screams…

I don’t think I ever imagined myself here

Don’t think I ever imagined a future at all

I really don’t know why

I just don’t think like that.

Is confession supposed to be good for the soul?

It doesn’t feel very good

At all

Maybe I sabotage myself

Maybe I just never learned how to …

Or what I learned was that dreamers get burned

That people who love and care get burned

And stepped on

And nice guys finish last because we’re gentlemen

Holding the door for others

If you show your weakness

Someone will stab you in it

I know I’m just like you

But sometimes I don’t …

I don’t know how to ask

I don’t know how to phrase what it is I want

If I really know what that is

Sergeant Pepper

Depending where you are, today or some time this week should make the 50th anniversary of the release of what is generally considered to be the Beatles greatest work, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It’s absolutely not their greatest [that’s a toss up between Revolver and Rubber Soul] nor even their most influential [I would hold With the Beatles / Meet the Beatles as the albums that launched a million bands] but it may be their most recognized and most often copied album. It’s certainly the album that drove Brian Wilson to a sandbox. [To be fair though, he was outnumbered two to one in the songwriting.]

A lot of people are going to tell you a lot of things about this kicking off “the Summer Of Love” and the hippie/peace movement yadda yadda blah blah blah. Don’t believe that hype. The Beatles were certainly the most high profile rock and roll band if not musical artists at the time, but there was a lot more going on around them. In London you already have Donovan, the Pink Floyd, Cream, Jimi Hendrix [Are You Experienced was released in April] and the Who. In the States, the San Francisco/L.A. thing is bubbling along with Frank Zappa & the Mothers Of Invention, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, the Byrds and the Grateful Dead. In New York, the Velvet Underground is going. Yes, all of this is going to get a whole lot bigger in the coming years but it’s already happening even as the Beatles unleash this beast.

And make no mistake it’s a good album. The first side is pretty good, the second side starts off with the twin clunkers of Harrison’s Within You, Without You and McCartney’s schmaltzy When I’m 64 [precursor of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Maxwells’ Silver Hammer]. Of course it picks up and culminates with what is in my [never] humble opine, the best Beatles track ever A Day in the Life.

How would one possibly make this album any better? some of you may be wondering. Glad you asked. Because you have to think about what’s NOT on the album for a second. [This is skewed by the American release of the Magical Mystery Tour album.] See, there was some clamoring for a new single early in 1967 and George Martin bowed to pressure by giving The Record Company the only two finished track laying around: Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. Two sides of a great single no doubt. But because of this, they were left OFF of Sgt. Pepper, something Martin rued for years and years. So think about a possible running order like this:

Sgt, Pepper…, With A Little Help…, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, She’s Leaving Home, …Mr. Kite, // Getting Better, [George song], Lovely Rita, Good Morning, A Day In the Life 

So in the US, instead of being given the 6 song EP [2 45s] Magical Mystery Tour like the U.K. [EPs never did seem to take off in the US], The Record Company filled out a whole album with singles tracks they had laying around: Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Hello Goodbye, Baby You’re A Rich Man and All You Need Is Love. Yet another way to get an extra buck out of your pocket! So perhaps Americans don’t think about Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane belonging with Sgt. Pepper, but they do.

Still, for my money the more interesting Beatles album is Revolver. That’s where they started using the Leslie rotating speakers and Artificial Double Tracking and speeding the tapes up, slowing them down and using tape loops and backwards guitar solos and stuff. And it’s got Tomorrow Never Knows, another favorite by John, McCartney’s For No One, Dr. Robert. And of course that album is missing other songs pulled off for singles: Paperback Writer, Rain, Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out. Taken in that context, the Beatles of 1966 kick the living shit out of the Beatles of 1967. I mean really, other than I Am the Walrus and the singles added by the US record company, what else is any good on Magical Mystery Tour?

Still we know how those baby boomers are. They’ve been told Sgt. Pepper is SO GREAT for SO LONG, it’s just taken as The Gospel Truth, the same way people think of Pet Sounds or Blonde On Blonde or Tommy or a whole slew of albums that I find merely ‘okay.’ And that’s fine. That friendly “Yer Stoopid, how can you think that!” debate is part of what keeps me listening. Even I have been known to change my mind on occasion about records. It DID happen! Really! Okay, for years I maintained that Beggar’s Banquet was a superior album to Let It Bleed. I KNOW, what the Hell was I thinking?!?...