One More For the Road
Frank Sinatra will always be the voice of America. It is a voice that pops up in my JukeBox Brain when I least expect it. As a jazz drummer it is expedient to be able to play the Sinatra book of tunes, usually with brushes. He defined an era despite his ongoing conflicts with drummer Buddy Rich. This song conjures late night loneliness and a bartender that wants to go home but instead listens to the heartbreaking story of his customer. This era didn’t have therapists on every corner. Folks had to just live with their sadness and put up a good front. Emotional toughness stemming from World War II resulted in a closed down psychological paralysis for a whole generation. The late night bar was the therapy that was acceptable. Frank was the tough guy to tell his tale. We are about ready to say good0bye to the last of that generation of soldiers, heroes, heroines and casualties, We ought to give them one last thank-you for their service whether it be in an after hours bar or a fox hole in the
Ardennes Forest facing imminent freezing death at the hands of Nazi fanatics. And give thanks for the years of relative peace since then and pray that it doesn’t happen again.
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For What It’s Worth
For what it’s WorthSteven Stills was one more extremely talented musician composer from the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Genius or maybe the water. This song was recorded by Buffalo Springfield back in the mid Sixties. “Stop, Hey what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going round.” An anthem…
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Light My Fire
Light My Fire Enough has been written about The Doors already. But the history of Jim Morrison is always fodder for rock scribes. We both got our starts in a dinky mildewed coffee house in Pinellas Park Florida; a suburb of St. Petersburg on the gulf coast of…
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In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed The Allman Brothers will always have a place of honor in my JukeBox Brain. My band Bethlehem Asylum was fortunate enough to open for the original Allmans on numerous occasions in the South when we were all getting started. The cemetary in Macon,…
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In the Midnight Hour
In the Midnight Hour It is midnight and I can’t sleep because WIlson Pickett is running my Jukebox Brain all on his own. How many times I have played this song is impossible to count. I recall smokey blue light bar rooms and stages with hundreds of adoring…
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Route 66 soundtrack
Route 66 Soundtrack Middle of the night I wake up to my internal Jukebox brain soundtrack just humming along playing the early Sixties theme song to the TV show, Route 66. None of you will remember this but I enjoyed it. Nelson Riddle composed it. Nothing better than…
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Wanna Take You Higher
Wanna Take You Higher Sly and the Family Stone was without a doubt the most thrilling band alive. My band Bethlehem Asylum opened for them on numerous occasions in Miami. When this song kicks in the whole world gets up to dance. This morning it is pulsing through…
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