Someone stole my Zune!!!

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.