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This was first published in the Flight Plan of October 10.  

                                - Ken, Johannesburg, December 18

"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 barrel, in this case "The Sea" we sold so many records that nobody from the record company ever bothered us. I was able to not only push the envelope but shred it if I wished. I got away with saying things that made Anita blush, but that never stopped her from coming up with music to compliment every word.

Each album we did was a concept album. It had 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 vasts 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 musically.

Jessie Pearson, the extraordinary late actor, was 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

Three Paragraphs from "Home to the Sea"

1. 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 the gypsies still accept runaways’ to their own? Or must I find another Foreign Legion?
Never mind, the gypsies all belong to me. . . . at night anyway.

2. 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 weren’t afraid of anything. Being young does that. When you’re young, there are only beaches and no battlefields. There were and are no beaches in Magic City Texas, so I got the hell out of there.

3. Running Out Of Strangers: Passing by on trains I see it on the hills. The same face 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’m running out of tomorrows and arms to run to, strange or familiar. There are no strangers to me anymore and that begins to worry me.

                         - from the album Home to the Sea, 1970

TRANSITION

After I’ve packed up
                  and gone
fly a flag
should the intruder come.

Take care to give me
fresh reports of all the ships
and all the ducks and seagulls
that sail or waddle beachward.

Be sure to tell me
if the seals come back
                  this year
and how the house
gets through the winter.

Keep a diary of sorts
a notebook day to day
that I might thumb through
                   or pore over
when I’m living inland
miles away.

                       - From the US Edition of "The Sea Around Me", 1977