13th & 14th October, 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
Phone Sex? Sorry I’m on hold. Cyber Sex?
No thanks; my Cyborgs' unit is rusty.
TO BEGIN WITH
Now that all three of the albums that comprise The Sea Trilogy are
available on CD this might be as good a time as any to reprint the
following Flight Plan first published seven years ago during our first
October of A Safe Place to Land.
My awe of Anita Kerr’s musical gifts and Jesse Pearson’s ability to turn
my words into romance hasn’t changed. If anything my admiration has
grown because of the seven additional San Sebastian Strings albums I’m
working on for digital release.
Oh, and not so incidentally, Anita celebrates a birthday today.
A FLIGHT FROM6THE
PAST
10 October. 1998
"HOME TO THE SEA"
No one, not even Anita Kerr herself, can imagine what fun I had working
with her on the San Sebastian Strings series that we did together. Her
music was inspiring and her arrangements were always stylish, inventive
and unexpected. Best of all she was and is one of the sweetest,
funniest, kindest and most talented people I’ve ever worked with or
known as a friend. Could anybody ever ask for a better working
environment?
I was a racer in those days, trying my dandiest to be a thoroughbred,
and Anita always kept up. We never failed to finish neck & neck. From
the first shot out of the stall. The series brought in so much cash for
Warner Bros. that we were never bothered by deadlines or budgets. It
didn’t hurt that the head of the record department of WB was more
interested in basketball than his artists. I was able to not only push
the envelope but shred it, getting away with saying things that made
Anita blush – that never stopped this good Christian woman from coming
up with music to compliment every word.
Each album we made had a concept, a premise that always included a
beginning, middle and an end. Lyrically there was a story that had to
carry the album. Musically there was a main theme that underscored the
story and a vast amount of additional music that helped flesh out my
flights of fancy. I like to think the best tracks stood on their own,
lyrically and/or musically.
The late Jessie Pearson was an extraordinary actor and the voice of our
"Sea Trilogy": The Sea, The Soft Sea & Home To The Sea. Nobody ever
spoke any of my words better and directing him was a treat. I didn’t
always write poems for the San Sebastian Strings series, sometimes just
a line or two between musical passages or maybe a paragraph.
These passages, never in print before, are merely thoughts, not poetry
but I hope they help to bring the album back in memory.
- R.M. 10/3/98, with revisions10/13/2005
Three Paragraphs from "Home to the Sea"
Another Evening With The Gypsies: I
know I’m nearing home...there are gypsies in my dreams again. Caravans
of minstrels with castanets and crystal balls. Dogs of every color
following the wagons. I can smell the strong coffee coming from a
hundred gypsy campfires. I wonder, do these vagabond bands still accept
runaways’ to their own? Or must I find another Foreign Legion?
Never mind, we are all fellow travelers . . . . at night anyway.
There Are No Beaches In Magic City, Texas:
The day before Magic City Texas blew away and new nuts predicted the
world’s end, we made love in the grove of cottonwood trees. . remember?
You weren’t afraid of me then. You didn’t fear anything. Being young
does that. When you’re young, there are only beaches, no battlefields.
There were and are no beaches in Magic City Texas, so I got the hell out
of there.
Running Out Of Strangers: Passing by
on trains I see them on the hills. The same faces sometimes walking a
little bit ahead of me. Opening my eyes in strange hotels . . . last
night’s memory clouded mixed with all the other memories. . . .
following neon after nine o’clock, watching people like my cat watches
me. I am running out of tomorrows and arms to run to, strange or
familiar. There are no strangers to me anymore and that has begun to
worry me.
RM / 1966. Revised, 2005
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