Just a quick update…
I left
it in my car, in our driveway, unlocked (smooth move, eh?) and someone took it
and the charger/FM transmitter I used to listen in my car.
This
was last summer (2017) and for the next few weeks I looked in the ditches in our subdivision (we
have no sidewalks, someone had to walk from the street, up the driveway, look
in and see it ,and grab it), because I’m sure they thought they were getting a
cell phone, and I pictured them walking down the road a bit, figuring out it
wasn’t a cell phone (WHAT THE….a
ZUNE!!!, Son of a ….”), and throwing it in the ditch. Never found it, though.
And
people still get $60-90 on Ebay for one. Not bad for a defunct, unsupported
piece of hardware.
I’ve
got my Kaffred playlist on my computer at work, but it does not play randomly, it
plays alphabetically by title. Which is OK, but I liked the randomness of the
Zune.
So,
after an absence of almost 1.5 years, I will try to re-launch my blog and
finish up the last 10 or so songs on my list.
Truth
be told, I have two CDs in my car that I listen to almost constantly right now.
One is Jimmy Webb’s “Just Across the River,” an album of his classics, sung
with some interesting guests.
Wichita
Lineman – w/Billy Joel
If
You See Me Getting Smaller – w/Willie Nelson
P.F. Sloan – w/Jackson Browne
By
the Time I Get to Phoenix – w/Glen Campbell
Highwayman
– w/Mark Knopfler
All
I Know – w/Linda Ronstadt
The
other CD is the “new” one from Yusuf/Cat Stevens. I say “new” because at least
half of the songs were written when Cat was in his pre-TB (see #53 - (I Never Wanted) To be a Star), pop star,
phase, in his late teens. Songs from his second studio album, New Masters, released
in 1967, when he was 19, include: the Laughing Apple (the CD’s title),
Blackness of the Night, Northern Wind, and I’m So Sleepy (a song I used to sing
to both Zay and Alicia when they were little, and which Alicia now sings along
with me when I play the CD in the car). There’s also a song from the late 60’s
early 70’s called Grandsons (or I’ve Got a Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow
Old from the box set that came out in 2001) and a song he wrote for Harold and
Maude (see #70 - Don't Be Shy), “You Can Do (Whatever)” that was not used in the film.
The new
songs are all good, sounding a lot like Cat Stevens songs from the Mona Bone
Jakon- Catch Bull at Four time period(1970-1972). In fact, the enclosed booklet
of lyrics explains that each song is a story that the Tillerman (of Tea for the
Tillerman) is telling to Teaser (of Teaser and the Firecat).
My favorite
song is his reworking of Northern Wind (Death of Billy the Kid), because Mr.
Stevens/Yusuf sings it in a low range, so low I can’t even get to it when my
voice is low in the morning.He also substantially changes the last verse from:
Let
it fill his life, life, life, until there’s nothing left
Let
it kill his wife, wife, wife, until he goes to bed.
To:
Let
it fill his life, life, life until there’s nothing left
Let
it kill his wife’s love, until he goes to bed
My
other favorite (I like every song on the album, actually) is “Don’t Blame Them”
that riffs on a melody by Beethoven (don’t ask me which one, Lynn pointed it
out to me, and the CD liner notes thanks Ludwig Van for the melody
Don’t blame the girl,
she won’t do you wrong,
The veil she
wears, on her long dark hair, Mary would have done
And
goes on to a “Peace Train”-like finish.
All in
all a wonderful listen.
