A Mixture Of BS And Wanderlust

I’ve Got A Lot Of Nerve

I’m still pretending to be a successful rock musician …. at my age! What about Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr? They’re all still performing. That’s different. Nobody doubts that they do have a lot of nerve and besides, they aren’t pretending. They remind me of characters in a serialized book. For sixty years, their fans have been like New Yorkers in the 19th century, waiting to find out what Dickens’ Nell or Nicholas were up to next. 

The Beatles were an excellent example of this. The periods between each album, from Rubber Soul to Abbey Road, were like pauses in a story that seemed already written.  

With recording as the sleeping giant and radio the alarm clock, popular music has become like an epic novel. It has a narrative unlike literature, though. There’s no final chapter. No real closure. Each genre either fades away or gradually morphs into something different. Sure, bands break up and celebrities die, but the works persist in an iconic limbo with the names of their creators stamped on them. There’s no “The End.” 

In this view, being beyond the age of sixty does not represent the autumn side of the “expression of life,” which is really what music and all the arts are about; it’s just part of the continuum of creation.

“HEFFERNAN, YOU’RE FULL OF SHIT!”

……… That would be Rick Haynes, and he’s right, of course. There’s no time for flowery philosophy. There’s work to do. 

Completely Off Topic

Speaking of Rick, he’s often made it clear to me that my extended walking (I call it exploring) in strange cities is dangerous. 

“If I were boss, I’d have you limited, under contract, to about a hundred yards outside the hotel or venue,” he told me once.

“You? The boss? That’ll never happen,” I said, followed by something like a Bronx cheer, only not as wet.

Oops

The Lightfoot Band, as we call ourselves now, is a co-operative. Significant issues are debated and voted on. It was in that spirit of democracy that Rick was elected as band leader. Call it director, chief, chairman, whatever, he’s the BOSS.