Had To Cry Today, Yep I Got the Faith!

Looking at that subject heading, you thought I cried today?  Had a g'shrai?

I'm talking Steve Winwood sang the life-changing "Had To Cry Today,"  the other night at The Greek.

It's already written that today will be one to remember
The feeling's the same as being outside of the law
Had to cry today
Well, I saw your sign and I missed you there

-Blind Faith

Many thanks to Mr. Bob Lefsetz who continually informs about the music industry.  He heard Steve belt this one out the other day.  About it, Bob says: 

"it connected in a way regular life never did...so as to believe that everything truly could be right with the world, that someone got it, and if we could just go on the road with the band our lives would be perfect."     -Bob Lefsetz

These are pretty powerful words.  Bob knew the scene back in '60s and, from my layperson's perspective, knows the commercialized music scene today.  Music wasn't just a magic carpet ride to an imaginary place, but the young music fans believed wholeheartedly that the music would transform their existence, their country, their planet.  The messages found in music like Winwood's are still fresh and powerful.  Maybe we're not roadies, but we can still apply these words to our daily lives.  Anyway, I like my flannel sheets from the Company Store.  They don't have those on tour.

Do you see or not see someone's sign and ever "miss you there"?

I wonder if Jason Flom, a music industry executive whose daughter I had the pleasure of teaching in the late '90s, respects Bob's insights.  I mean, I  think they're good.  I think historically Jason has been a successful outside-of-the-box thinker in the music biz.   

But, Jason was there, too, well, at least in the 70s. He gets the spirit of the '60s, for sure.  Just don't have peanuts on your breath if you ever have the chance to meet him because he's got a severe peanut allergy.  You'd know that, too, if you kept up with your New Yorker readings.

Here's an incredible preservation of Blind Faith's only live recording of "Had to Cry Today," and their first gig, to boot!

This is an important video for all peoples to view in its entirety.

 

Note Steve's purple shirt.
If you can groove along to this tune, we have stuff to talk about.

Mommies Are People, But Am I A Grownup?

On our drive this weekend to visit my parents and to celebrate my sister's birthday, my children and I listened to the "Free to Be You and Me" soundtrack.   The close-quarters of being in the minivan enabled me to ponder this song, and I started thinking about how it has poignantly come full-circle.

there is a YouTube video  here, so if you get this in an email link you might need to click through to the wholephamily.com website itself to see this video link

Like so many children of my generation, I grew up listening to this record.
I picked it up again in college and then started thinking of its message that all people can be whomever they choose to be.  I doubt my mom ever read Ms. Magazine cover-to-cover like I did in 2004 while nursing Conealed Light in New Haven (I have been told I need to clarify that Ms. is pronounced mizz, and it was part of the foundation that backed this record), but she knew the good stuff and Free To Be You and Me was it in the 70s.

When I was little, I was the girl listener, envisioning all of the mommies and daddies and all the things they can do.  And now I am the mama.  And while I haven't become a professional baker, doctor, or funny joke-teller, I have done a lot of things so far.

This song sends the message that parents can and should shoot for the moon.  And that college isn't necessary to get there.  I have told Stango that our children can become skilled tradespeople.  He doesn't see it my way.  Despite that I am the first woman in my immediate family to obtain a college degree, I wonder if it is necessary.  Can't Concealed Light become a pastry chef if she so desires?  Can't The Wolfman apprentice as an electrician?  Better yet, he can become the pastry chef and she can become the electrician.  Two years ago,  my former HBO colleague James Altucher made a compelling argument for this in "Don't Send Your Kids to College."  One of the reactions to Altucher's argument was that unless you are a superstar in your field like Bill Gates or Madonna, a college degree is still necessary.

As for me, I am a mama.  With a lot of interests (read any one of my blog entries and you will get an idea). While it is still hard for me to swallow the reality pill that makes me a grownup and not a little girl riding her banana seat bike in 1979, Marlo Thomas' message for children and adults alike is fresh and current in 2012.  And because of that, a tear of joy rolls down my cheek.