3rd & 4th November, 2005
Rod in Concert
Holland, December 2005!
San Sebastian Strings
albums now available on CD! Order
now!
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Photo by Edward McKuen 9/24/2005
A Thought for Today
Offer a helping hand before you
criticize.
TO BEGIN WITH
A few days after the flight plan below was printed a friend called and
asked if my arms were long enough to pass the audition. I guess they
must have been, I have a big smile on my face as I celebrate the first
anniversary.
- RM 9/22/99
A FLIGHT FROM6THE
PAST
September 23, 1999
AN AUTUMN TO SPRING SONG
Am I anxious about today? I am. I don't know why. Auditions never ever
worried, worry me. Because of all the numbers in our days, there is
always more rejection than acceptance in whatever life we choose to
live. And I have tried my best to not fear the turning of the years,
"the long, long while from May to December." I figured then that when
September came and went, I'd be ready. Having packed so many years of
living, enough lovers found and lost and found again into a life that
would not have happened unless I'd forced it; what was there up ahead to
be afraid of? What is there to fear?
I have loved the autumn like no other season, the turning of the leaf,
the sunset more vivid than the sunrise, the lovers of September and
December - more beautiful than their counterparts in April, May. Each
line learned, each pound earned and white more beautiful than blonde or
grey. Why should I be apprehensive about a May / December meeting
planned today? If I knew the answer to all that then I would hold the
key to what has driven me, against all odds to here and now.
The in between must hold the answer, not the quantum leap from
twenty-seven to sixty-five. I urge you as you 'round the forty-year mark
to look ahead and not glance backward. That was then. You won't
recapture 21 and thirty will be history soon enough. Brave it out and
always hike toward tomorrow. Tomorrow's all there is and who can know
how many of them you will greet or because of that final, inevitable,
appointment, ever meet.
Do I worry of an autumn to spring meeting later on this day? Ah, I do. I
worry that my arms will not be long enough to surround and comfort you
and that my own desire for more than company might interrupt my good
intentions. Not to mention devils in the underbrush that always seem to
get ahead of angels hovering overhead.
My September has arrived, I have to look it in the eye or turn my back
forever. Only winter lies ahead. Along the way I wrote so many dark
September songs and each comes back to haunt me now. Why was I in such a
hurry?
-RM - 9/23/98. First Published 9/24/98
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ROD McKUEN
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ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
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Thursday 3 November
Culture Day (Japan)
Adam Ant o
John Barry o
Vincenzo Bellini o
Ken Berry o
Charles Bronson o
William Cullen Bryant o
Kate Capshaw o
Michael Dukakis o
David Eddington o
Fred Fairbrass o
Bob Feller o
Dorian Gossy o
Wanda Hendrix o
Larry Holmes o
Diane Inskeep o
Russell Long o
Lulu o
Dolph Lundgren o
Andre Malraux o
Terrence McNally o
Dennis Miller o
James Reston o
Roseanne o
Yitzhak Shamir o
Shadoe Stevens o
Monica Vitti
Friday
4 November
Martin Balsam o
Laura W. Bush o
Art Carney o
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs o
Walter Cronkite o
Daisy Eagan o
Alexz Johnson o
Anthony Kavana o
Ralph Macchio o
Matthew McConaughey o
Felix Mendelssohn o
Cameron Mitchell o
Louise Nurding o
Markie Post o
Will Rogers o
Arthur Schwartz o
Loretta Swit o
Pauline Trigere o
Yanni o
Gig Young |
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It's impossible to be in love, sensible, dignified and have balance of
thought all at once.
Be tender every time you bid your friends
goodbye, who knows if you will meet again.
The promise is the promise. We seldom have
to hunt it down, it finds us by its own direction.
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SONG FROM THE EARTH |
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One drop of rain
cannot fill a fountain.
One grain of sand
cannot make a mountain.
And a handful of earth
is more than we should be worth
in the eyes of the Man
who made us all from the earth.
Those who go alone
those who go together
those who give the world its trouble
those who make it better,
we’re all on our way to dust
from the day of our birth,
from the ground we’ve come
and we’re all going back to earth.
So stay for a while with me
walk another mile with me,
live another day for what it’s worth.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
we’re all going back to the earth.
-from the album “The Earth, 1970 ” & “An Outstretched Hand,” 1980. Words
by Rod McKuen, Music by Anita Kerr. |
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