It’s been awhile since I have posted and even longer since I posted about public policy. I blame this on the basic horrible state of news in the US and around the world as causing me to deviate from the central purpose of this blog. (though I do enjoy blogging about humor and music). The news of the fall and summer have been dominated by death in Ferguson (and now New York City), Ebola and ISIS. But as I have thought about these events and the coverage of them as well as the public policy responses, there is a central commonality. Our perception of health and safety risk as a society is BACKWARDS! We, as a society, and the press (and internet) and politicians that feed our perceptions, generally focus on relatively small risks while paying far less attention to more significant risks to our health and well-being. In my mind, this is a public policy tragedy that has been going on for many years.
The Ferguson shooting was unquestionably a tragedy (any time anyone dies, particularly someone who is young, it is particularly tragic), though most of the evidence and the grand jury decision, pointed to a situation which was a “justified homicide”. (despite the press coverage that for months largely painted it as an example of police brutality and racism). The accidental choking death in New York city appears to be an example of just the opposite (despite the grand jury’s failure to indict) a case of second degree manslaughter if there ever was one given the video evidence! I certainly understand and agree with the concern over these deaths, as well as problems between the police and inner-city communities in general. I also realize that I can never fully understand the natural resentment that many African-Americans have with the police given the historical (and in some cases, current) record of specifically hassling, targeting and arresting young black youths. Thus, it is more than understandable that there is enormous anger and frustration over both of these deaths and the failure to indict in both cases.
However, we need to put this all in the appropriate context. For one, the statistical evidence is that the number of such instances are relatively rare. Consider that last year according to FBI statistics, there were about 14,000 homicides with more than 2/3 of the victims being black or hispanic living in inner city neighborhoods. (with 90% of blacks being murdered by other blacks). However, in contrast, there were only 410 “justifiable homicides” by police with only a very small number of police being convicted for murder or manslaughter or other more questionable Ferguson or NYC incidents. In other words, even counting ALL justified and unjustified homicides by the police, these homicides were only 3% as frequent as murders in general. Again, this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be concerned about police homicides or the police relationship with the community in general, as evidence has shown that in those areas and communities that have improved the police-community relationship, overall safety and crime rates have also improved. However, it does say that perhaps we should also focus on the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, 14,000 murders (though an enormous improvement from 20-25 years ago) are still too many!. The causes of murder and violent crime in our inner city neighborhoods are complex, but family breakdown, inadequate schools and educational opportunity, high unemployment, among other negative economic statistics are certainly major contributors. Perhaps the protests and concerns should also be directed at these core problems and how to fix them rather than solely at the statistically smaller risk of unjustified police homicides.
The Ebola hysteria of this past summer is another good example of the US society’s misplaced emphasis on in this case a very low risk to Americans. To be sure, we should be concerned about the spread of the Ebola as it is a very lethal disease. But the hysteria over the possible infection of significant numbers of Americans was completely unfounded and in fact, only one person ended up dying from Ebola in the US. In contrast, tens of thousands have already died from the 2014 outbreak in Africa and even this number pales in comparison to the literally millions who die from less “sensational” diseases and illness (such as diarrhea, typhoid, malaria, AIDS to name just a few each and every year in Africa). But much like the Ferguson case, the press and the internet and our politicians put a name and a face on the threat in the US and it becomes the focus of concern.
The threat of ISIS could be viewed similarly. To be sure, the rise of ISIS is worrisome and likely increases the risk of terrorist attacks here in the US and around the world. Further, if ISIS is able to gain a true caliphate (by taking over much of Iraq), it can become another state sponsor of terrorism (similar to Iran) and will make the US and the World a less safe place. However, US deaths by terrorism here and abroad will still be a VERY low risk for most Americans. It is notable that our concern (and apparently our government’s concern) over ISIS was minimal until the internet decapitations in August. Again, the images put a real face on ISIS style terrorism and made it more newsworthy and thus became a focus of our concern.
Air pollution in the US is another example of the public’s complete misunderstanding of risk, aided and abetted this time by the federal government itself. The EPA has in particular been trotting out studies for the past 10 years which make the case that there are literally tens of thousands of deaths from air pollution in the U.S. CURRENTLY. Of course, common sense tells us this is nonsense. In fact, US air pollution levels are much lower than they were even 10 years ago and far lower than 30 years ago. There are numerous problems with the studies not the least of which they are cross-sectional, population studies largely use old data during the 1980s and 1990s when air pollution levels were much higher than today. (e.g. Sulfur dioxide, the largest precursor of fine particulates, which are allegedly responsible for the EPA body count has been cut by almost 90% from 35 years ago.) Further, the multi-linear regression studies show relatively low correlations, and do not include many important variables. Frankly, I would have flunked my Stanford business school Statistics class had I submitted this as my regression project. Lastly, the EPA and its multitude of scientists have NEVER found any direct health effect in animal studies associated with the levels of pollutants even in U.S. air sheds some 30 years ago, let alone at today’s much lower levels. Consider also that common sense (and our own noses) tells us to periodically “air out” our houses when we smell gas, cook something smoky or use our fireplaces or wood burning stoves. In fact, the health risks of indoor pollution are clearly greater than outdoor pollution. And, of course, by far the largest risk to mortality and health (related to our breathing) is smoking which is still a habit for a significant number of Americans. Yet, there is far less attention on these risks by EPA or the public as a whole.
The recent malfunctioning airbags in Honda and other vehicles during this year have led to several major injuries and even one death and a recall program at Honda. And of course, it received significant publicity on the news and on the web. However, despite significant publicity, the risk is tiny, in comparison with the risk of deaths from vehicle accidents in general (about 40,000 deaths per year), which is the most common form of accidental death in the US.
In fact, the top ten causes of death in 2011 were hardly “sexy” or as interesting as malfunctioning air bags, cop killings, air pollution, Ebola or terrorism:
- Heart Disease– 597,000
- Cancer– 577,000
- Chronic lower respiratory disease–142,000
- Stroke–128,000
- Accidents– 126,000 (about 1/3 vehicle accidents, about 1/3 unintentional poisoning)
- Alzheimer’s disease–85,000
- Diabetes–74,000
- Flu and Pneumonia–54,000
- Nephritis/Nephrosis–46,000
- Suicide–39,518
Why is there such an emphasis and focus placed on risks that are really very low, while the much more prevalent forms of mortality risks in the US get relatively little focus? In my view, there are two key reasons. First, deaths from police homicides, Ebola, terrorism, plane crashes etc. are interesting and newsworthy, precisely because they are “rare”. Second, these relatively uncommon deaths are caused by “someone else”. One can blame “evil” corporations, government bureaucracy, bad government policies or an overly aggressive police officer and this in itself also makes the story more interesting and newsworthy. In contrast, the common mortality risks are mostly in our own control thru better diet, not smoking, drinking only in moderation, exercise, weight control, mental health, immunizations, driving practices to name just a few factors.
The fact that our risk of death is actually largely within our own control should be very good news or even “cheery” news (appropriate for the upcoming Holidays). However, sadly, few of us focus on it all that much. Perhaps the best Christmas present we can offer our friends and family is to remind them to be safe and be healthy. Or as the Sarge used to say on Hill Street Blues “Let’s be careful out there.” Let’s not have any more rides into the “danger zone” than are necessary.
Merry Christmas to all.
It was 11:30 am on Wednesday October 8th and I was woozy with hunger and thirst. No, it wasn’t due to a hunger strike protesting the Yankees failure to make the MLB playoffs or the Buckeyes abysmal early season loss to Virginia Tech, though these disasters would have been reason enough. Instead, I was fasting before surgery and it had been 11:59:59 PM on October 7th since I had eaten my last snack or sipped my last water (I took the nurse’s commandment “NOTHING to eat or drink after midnight” quite literally). I tried to distract myself by reading emails and making some quick phone calls to work, but it did no good. Visions of a hot cup of coffee, and my daily bowl of shredded wheat with fresh raspberries danced in my head. I even went into our food pantry “just to look” in the hope of getting some psychic sustenance, but it was no use. Finally, after what seemed like many hours but in fact was just another interminable 88.5 minutes, it was time to go. As Anne drove me to the surgical clinic, I stared out the window longingly at a Taco Bell (which definitely was a “first”).
By 1:00 PM, I was being admitted into surgery for the first time in my life. No, I am not referring to procedures where I was ‘sedated” such as oral surgery when I had my gums detached from my teeth and three of my wisdom teeth removed or my first colonoscopy at age 50 (as much fun as these procedures were!). Instead, the surgery was for a hernia that I was diagnosed with three weeks prior and I was to experience the joys of “general anesthesia” and major surgery.
General anesthesia is much stronger than sedation in that it completely relaxes ALL muscles, puts you in a “deep sleep” and ensures you do not feel pain. The doctor inserts a breathing tube down your throat in order to control your breathing. Given how much difficulty I have had in my life with doctors using tongue depressors or throat swabs due to my apparently, very-strong gag reflex, I sincerely hoped that it would be a VERY DEEP SLEEP. Unfortunately, anesthesia is more risky than sedation. (though I was told by the doctor that is still a statistically a “very, very small” risk). The internet medical sources I consulted (the source of ALL TRUTH!) notes that one should “ask their doctor” about the following complications: (1)Harm to your vocal cords (2) Heart attack (3) Lung infection(4) Mental confusion(5) Stroke (6)Trauma to the teeth or tongue (7) Waking during anesthesia and of course, the old favorite (8) DEATH. I didn’t find it particularly reassuring that the terrifying complication of “waking during anesthesia” (with that breathing tube down your throat and a surgeon cutting into your body!) was ONLY the fifth worst of the potential (albeit rare) complications. Further, those telling me the risks were ” very small” had obviously never seen the movie “Coma” where a malevolent doctor puts people under “permanently” and then harvests their organs (which is not even listed among the complications above).
This all started in mid-September when I started having abdominal/groin pain which I tried to ignore (my age and chronic back pain had convinced me that ALL pain was “normal” or more aptly that one never really feels physically “normal” when they are older) . However, the pain worsened and I grew increasingly concerned that maybe I had something much more serious. (No doubt, I thought, a product of my consumption of literally thousands of cocktails, beers and diet cokes during my adult life). So I went to see the doctor who after some uncomfortable groping and coughing (on my part), assured me that I “merely” had a hernia. (I learned later that I had an ‘inguinal’ hernia which is the most common for males, rather than a ‘femoral” hernia much more common in females. I have to admit that I was relieved to have the inguinal variety as it was one of those rare chances at age 60 to reaffirm my masculinity).
As I was being admitted into the clinic, I thought about my procedure. Fortunately, it was NOT going to be the more invasive “open hernia” repair where larger incisions are made to directly repair the hernia. Instead, I was to get ” laparoscopic” surgery which was less invasive and faster healing (supposedly) and involved several smaller incisions where a scope with a camera was introduced beneath my skin and moved over to my right side where it would then seemingly magically cut and stitch a plastic mesh over that hole to repair the hernia. ( I envisioned a tiny robot tunneling around my body). Nonetheless, after I agreed to the laparoscopic procedure , I couldn’t help but think of an extremely scary scene in the sci-fi movie “Alien” which involved a small foreign alien being introduced into one character with not exactly a good outcome. But then again while “Alien” was scary enough, the alternative “open hernia” repair was more akin to “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” which to this day is the most terrifying movie I have ever seen.
After I checked in and finished signing the several-inch stack of pre-surgical documents (“Sign here…and here…and here ….and here…”), I changed into a “hospital’ gown (with the odd tie strings in the back— “Why was that? Did they not realize that they were going to be operating on the “front” side of my body”). A number of practitioners visited me in my room (actually, a cubby with a curtain and a “too short” bed/recliner)–the nurse, the head nurse, the anesthesiologist and the surgeon who asked if I had any questions. ( Thankfully, the visitors did NOT include a priest.) Finally, I was wheeled into the OR and positioned on the operating table. I felt something burning in my IV and then an overwhelming wave of drowsiness. ( I remember thinking if I can JUST keep my eyes open then they CAN’T operate!) and then …..(A MILLISECOND PASSED or two hours in real-time)….
…”The surgery went well” Dr. Bach was telling me. (Fittingly enough, I had gotten my favorite composer as a surgeon who no doubt had used Brandenburgian contrapuntal, fugue-like symmetry in his surgical technique.) Within minutes, I was given back my clothes told to dress and go home. (I envisioned a line of patients waiting to take over my cubby while an attending nurse was ringing up a cash register.)…. BUT I was done and the recovery had begun!
1974 was a big change year for rock and popular music generally. Beginning with the instrumental groups Love Unlimited Orchestra (directed by Barry White) doing “Love’s Theme” (#1 in February) and MFSB ( mother, father, sister , brother officially …Mother, F#*#ing Son of a B#%ch unofficially) doing “TSOP” ( The Sound of Philadelphia ) which was # 1 in April, disco exploded onto the pop charts during 1974. Disco music was to boast several other of the biggest hits of the year including “Rock the Boat” by the Hues Corporation, “Rock Your Baby” by George McRae and two vocal hits by Barry White “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Babe” and “You’re The First, My Last, My Everything”. In fact, disco was to dominate the charts for much of the next 5 years, a trend that I didn’t much enjoy as I generally disliked the music. ( nor could I disco dance).
Meanwhile, rock music was in retreat generally and even three of the former Beatles had an off-year. After his excellent solo album in 1973, Ringo produced little new music in 1974, though two of his best songs from his 1973 album went to the top or near the top of the charts, “You’re Sixteen” and “Oh My My”. Meanwhile John and George produced little new material as well, with only Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Thru Night” ( with backing vocals from Elton John) being a good 1974 rock n roll song.
In addition to the three of the Beatles solo acts, many other rock and folk acts had little of note in 1974. The Moody Blues disappeared from the rock scene completely producing no new material for almost five years. The Who released only a remnants album called “Odds and Sods” which paled in comparison to the prior year’s “Quadrophenia” . Yes had only the meandering and loosely constructed “Tales of Topographic Oceans ” , a double album which had relatively little good music over its 80 minute length. ( This album was a particular sore point for me as a big fan, because at my first and only Yes concert they played ALL four sides of the album, ignoring all of the outstanding material on “The Yes Album” and “Fragile”(except for their Roundabout encore )) . Led Zeppelin had no new material taking a year off from touring and recording. After 1973’s superb album, The Captain and Me, the Doobie Brothers had only “What were Once Vices are Now Habits” album, but at least, it did feature one outstanding song “Black Water ” which was released as a single at the end of 1974. Likewise Paul Simon , after two excellent albums in 1972 and 1973 to start his solo career, had nothing new in 1974.
Perhaps the biggest sign of rock’s 1974 slump was that some of the most popular rock hits of the year were covers of older songs from the 60s ranging from the annoying Blue swede rendition ( Ooh – Ga Chucka) of “Hooked on a Feeling” to Grand Funk’s just OK rendition of “The Locomotion” and James Taylor/ Carly Simon’s duet of “Mockingbird” . Ringo’s version of “You’re Sixteen” was good, but his version of the Platters “Only You” was not good at all. The cover of “Another Saturday Night” by Cat Stevens was more inspired though it still paled in comparison to the Sam Cooke original.
Another bad sign for 1974 was that two no. 1 songs and one top ten hit from the year were bad “novelty” songs headlined by Ray Stevens #1 hit “The Streak” which wasn’t remotely funny, the tiresome though catchy #1 “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas, and Guess Who’s ” Clap for the Wolfman” which represented an all-time low for the group.
But the worst aspect of 1974 was that several of the top-selling hits of the year rank among my worst singles of all time. This included the awful “Seasons in The Sun” a Rod McKuen song made somehow even worse by Terry Jacks and the tinny organ accompaniment, the anti-abortion “You’re Having My Baby” by Paul Anka which actually makes me nauseous upon hearing it; the extremely annoying “The Night Chicago Died” and the musically and lyrically inane “Billy Don’t be a Hero” by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Believe it or not, as bad as these songs were, all four of them made it to #1 on the pop charts.,
Fortunately, there were some bright spots in the rock and pop-rock scene during the year. My favorite album of the year 1974 ( though technically a December 1973 release) was Paul McCartney’s “Band on the Run” which featured three excellent singles : Helen Wheels, Jet and the title track, which was the best song on the album. In addition, the album was loaded with other great songs notably “Let Me Roll it”, “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” and my favorite “1985” which highlights some mean piano playing by Paul. Paul wasn’t done for 1974 either, releasing the rollicking single “Juniors Farm” later in the year. Steely Dan released its “Pretzel Logic” album which had several excellent songs most notably the wonderful “Rikki Don’t Lose that number” the hit single from the album plus several others such as “Pretzel Logic” “Night by Night” and “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”. The album demonstrated the groups further movement to a unique rock/ jazz fusion sound begun with the prior years “Countdown to Ecstasy ” album.
Other British artists excelled. David Bowie came out with the excellent rocker “Rebel, Rebel”. Eric Clapton released the “461 Ocean Boulevard” album. The album featured the Bob Marley song .”I Shot the Sheriff” which became the first no. 1 reggae hit in the US. The album had several other great Clapton songs such as “Let it Grow” ; “Mainline Florida” and Clapton’s excellent renditions of the traditional rhythm and blues tunes “Motherless Children” and “Willie and the Hand Jive”. Though Elton John’s “Caribou” album was a disappointment particularly after his previous three critically acclaimed albums, it did have two excellent singles from the album first with “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me ” which made #2 ( and had the distinction of going to #1 some 17 years later as a live version) . But my favorite song from the album was the fabulous ” The Bitch is Back” ( featuring backing vocals by Dusty Springfield) . Finally, Elton was not to miss the trend towards covering 60s songs with his outstanding cover of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” at the end of the year.
Notable new groups for the year included the Canadian group, Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO), featuring Randy Bachman ( the founder of the Guess Who). BTO emerged in late 1973 with the classic “Takin Care of Business” and followed with the two 1974 hits ” Hey You” and the #1 hit and my personal favorite “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. where Randy famously mimicked his younger brother’s stuttering problem. (Imagine trying to do that today on a popular song!). Another new group, Bad Company, had the spirited rock hit “Can’t Get Enough”. A group that had been around for several years, Lynyrd Skynyrd, had their first commercial success with the classic “Sweet Home Alabama”. And though not a new group by any means, the Steve Miller Band had their first big hit with the very mellow and carefree “The Joker”
On the soul and R&B side, Stevie Wonder released his third original solo album “Fulfillingness First Finale” which though not as good as his first two original albums , did have two excellent songs “You Haven’t Done Nothing” and “Boogie on Reggae Woman”. Kool and the Gang got us in the groove with their first top ten funk song “Jungle Boogie” while Billy Preston had his best vocal single “Nothing from Nothing” and the Jackson V had one of their best R&B songs with the more mature sounding “Dancing Machine”. Former Temptation lead singer, Eddie Kendricks outshone his former group with his second and last noteworthy R&B hit “Boogie Down”. Meanwhile, Aretha Franklin had the beautiful and soulful “Until You Come Back to Me ( That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” . And Dionne Warwick and the Spinners merged their great singing talents together with the upbeat “Then Came You”.
1974 also featured several excellent softer folk-rock hits such as the haunting “Can’t Get it out of my head” by ELO, Carly Simon’s uplifting ” Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” one of the best songs of her career, Harry Chapin’s musically and lyrically excellent “Cats in the Cradle”, and Gordon Lightfoot’s beautiful “Sundown”. Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me”, Carole King’s “Jazzman” and America’s “Tin Man” rounded out the list of folk rock classics. The Eagles released their first hit single “Already Gone” from their 1974 album ” On the Border” , which was one of my favorites by the Eagles. The song was a panacea for the bad breakup, impossible not to sing along with. Lastly, the year featured a surf sound throwback with the very catchy and totally enjoyable “Beach Baby” by First Class ( a group from a very “unbeachlike” England of all places).
1974 was in many respects a disappointing year for rock-pop music and it paled in comparison to 1973 and 1972. And perhaps that was fitting for me in the midst of my “sophomore slump” in college. However, there were still many songs worth remembering and it held out the hope that when it would come to 1975 ” You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”!
Today, our cat, Baloo, was put to sleep after suffering from the effects of kidney disease for the past several months. He had stopped eating altogether this past couple of weeks and weighed just 6 pounds (half of his normal body weight) when he died.
Baloo was our first family pet. (He is survived by our dog, Maisie) and the first pet for our daughters Kathleen and Maryanne. He was also the first cat or dog that I ever had. (I didn’t have either when growing up in New York city.). We all had a special bond with him. So I suppose even though he was “only” a pet, I shouldn’t be surprised how sad I feel today.
Baloo was born in 2001, and was found left behind in a box with several other kittens on a baseball field. We adopted him from the Capital Area Humane Society Shelter that summer. However, it was quite a surprise for me when I came home from work that evening, assuming that Anne and my daughters had been to the shelter to adopt a “dog”. But as Anne described, none of the dogs were “really right” and when they went to visit the kittens, Baloo just crawled into her lap. So there inside a box was our new pet– a handsome tiger cat named Baloo. As it turned out, it was fitting that we had adopted Baloo while intending to adopt a dog, because he truly had a dog’s personality in a cat’s body.
As a kitten, Baloo patiently endured my two, then grade-school daughters, putting him in their Barbie car and ‘driving’ him around. As he matured, he became a fixture in their pretend plays and musicals (along with the Barbie dolls and stuffed animal characters) and even appeared on home video in the pretend reality series “Fright Factor” in which he played the fearsome tiger that was locked in the same room as Maryanne. Mostly, Baloo was just plain social. He would crawl into all of our laps anytime of the day or night. He would quickly warm up to guests and before they would even realize it, he would find his way onto their laps as well. Baloo was my lone male companion (albeit a neutered one) in a household of three females (plus a female dog) and no other males. He would often keep me company while I watched Yankee baseball games on TV. I even think he enjoyed the games (though only when the Yankees were winning!) . And when I did my daily stretching exercises lying on my stomach, Baloo could never resist either sitting right on top of my back or sniffing my head and then pawing at my hair – his way of being affectionate.
Baloo was a cat that could do tricks. We bought him a whole bunch of cat-toy balls (made from soft, malleable, NERF-like material that were golf-ball sized) and he would love to chase after these when we bounced them down the hallway. Then, he would pick one up in this teeth and carry it back often proudly meowing/ announcing his catch, before depositing it at our feet. He would also leap up high in the air and bat the balls with his paws when we bounced them for him. Sometimes, I remember thinking “we should call David Letterman to have Baloo come on his show”. Baloo also collected and hid these same balls under the couch, the standup piano, our bed to name just a few of his favorite hiding places. And, when the girls did their homework on laptops while lying on the floor, Baloo sat perched next to them, staring at the computer screen. It seemed as though he was taking in every word!
Baloo was not allowed outside (for his own health and safety), so he would often sit on the other side of the sliding screen door to our back deck watching us and wanting to be part of the action while we ate dinner on summer evenings. He would sometimes escape outside even if we left the screen door open for just a second which then required us to coax him back inside thru a combination of bribes with cat treats.
Baloo was a one-of-a-kind cat. I am convinced he loved his family in almost the same way that we loved him. I’m sad that he is gone now, but really glad that he was part of our family for more than 13 years. Rest in peace, Baloo!
Summer is nearly over. The kids in our neighborhood are back in school and the unofficial end of summer (Labor Day Weekend) is nearly upon us. (I realize that the “official” end of summer is September 21st but I have never felt that September was anything but a fall month). So in honor of the summer before it departs (sigh), I thought I would present my list of 20 favorite summer songs of all time.
But first, here are a few ground rules as to what I define as a “summer song”. I don’t count songs that happened to be recorded or charted during the summer months. Instead, the song must have “summer” or “summertime” or a summer month (i.e. “June” “July” or “August”) in the title OR in the lyrics to qualify. Also, to keep this manageable I have restricted it to songs recorded in the rock ‘n roll era (i.e. 1955 or later). I am sure that there are some great earlier era songs that I will be missing , but so be it. So here they are in order. Though not much separates #1 from #20:
1) Summer in the City – Lovin Spoonful – Mark Sebastian co-wrote this song for his older brother’s group. Since he was in the same class as my sister in high school at Friends Seminary in New York, I can’t help but feel very connected to this song. I love this song for its poignant lyrics which are all New York City and really remind me of my summers growing up … “back of my neck, getting dirt and gritty”….”All around, people looking half dead. Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head”. And the song is an uncharacteristic rocker given the normal folk rock sound of John Sebastian and the Spoonful. Great keyboards and electric guitar. In other words, it has it all.
(2) See You September – The Happenings – ” there is danger in the summer moon above”. Though not the original version, (the Regents did that in 1959), this rendition features the Happenings great voices and is a bit faster than the original. It is irresistibly catchy, both lyrics and music. Though certainly not a rock song, it was one of my early favorites ( and among my first 45 purchases) when I starting listening to WABC constantly in the summer of 1966.
(3) Sunny Afternoon- The Kinks ” lazing on a sunny afternoon in the summertime”–This song oozes summer laziness which all of us have experienced at one time or other. It doesn’t hurt that it is also, in my opinion, one of the Kinks best songs with an infectious guitar, bass line and tune.
(4) Hot Fun in the Summertime- Sly and the Family Stone–This is by far the best soul song about summer. A hard one not to love since it makes you feel really good about the summer (though strangely sad when you here it post-September).
(5) Summertime Blues- Eddie Cochran/ The Who–OK I cheated a bit on this one. I love Eddie Cochran’s original version with its late 50s guitar rhythms. But I also like the Who’s hard rock version (particularly their “Live at Leeds” recording) as well. So I put them both on the list tied at #5.
(6) Summer Rain- Johnny Rivers— I have always been a huge Johnny Rivers fan. I love his voice. This is a particularly good Johnny Rivers ballad, an original hit song with lyrics that had us all remembering the summer of 1967. “All summer long, we were dancing in the sand. Everybody just kept on playing Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”. (At least, I remember experiencing the second part of that line from the summer of “67)
(7) Saturday in the Park- Chicago “I think it was the 4th of July”— This song captures the spirit of Grant Park in Chicago on a summer Saturday. But it just as easily could have been New York or any other major city in the 1970s with ” a man selling ice cream, and singing Italian songs”. It’s a great tune featuring Chicago’s always interesting brass arrangement.
(8) Surfin’ USA- Beach Boys “We’ll all be gone for the summer. We’re on safari to stay.Tell the teacher we’re surfin’
surfin’ U.S.A.” – One of several great Beach Boy songs about beaches and surfing. However, surprisingly one of just two that I could find that mentions summer. (The other is the song “All Summer Long”).
(9) A Summer Song- Chad and Jeremy– The best folk ballad about summer bar none. Its hard not to listen to it and not to imagine that its summer again “Trees swaying in the summer breeze; showing off their silver leaves”
(10) Beach Baby- First Class “Beach, baby beach, baby; there on the sand from July to the end of September.”– I really love this tune and how it waxes nostalgic about summer on the beach. It was a big hit in 1974 well after the peak of popularity of the Beach Boys , though it could have been easily done by them.
(11) Boys of Summer- Glen Frey– My favorite 80s summer song and a great rock song.
(12) Summer of ’69-Bryan Adams “Those were the best days of my life” – My second favorite 80s summer song.
Near Misses/Honorable Mentions:
Master Blaster- Stevie Wonder “Everyone’s feeling pretty. Its hotter than July”
Summer- War
Hot Summer Day- It’s a Beautiful Day
Rain on the Roof – Lovin Spoonful “caught up in a summer shower”
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)- Springsteen
Theme from a Summer Place- Percy Faith
Hot August Night – Meatloaf
Cruel Summer- Bananarama
All Summer Long – Beach Boys
Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer – Nat King Cole
98.6 – Keith ” got spring and Summer rolling thru me”
Sorry I was never a big fan of these songs
Indian Lake- Cowsills
In the Summertime- Mungo Jerry
Endless Summer Nights – Richard Marx
Vacation- Connie Francis
Suddenly Last Summer- Motels
Ode to Billie Joe- Bobby Gentry ” was the third of June”
Summer Nights- Olivia Newton John/John Travolta
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So I am sure I missed a few and maybe some of your favorites?
With somewhat better economic times allegedly finally upon us (albeit temporary in my view), the issue of increasing income inequality in the US has begun to receive some attention again. The main figure that is brought up in support of the notion is that “median” incomes in the US adjusted for inflation have barely budged since 2000 and have actually declined during the Obama years but incomes for the top 1% and top quintile are increasing. A recent book by Thomas Piketty, a French economist purports to show that the top 1% is getting much wealthier lately at the expense of the bottom 80% particularly since the 1970s and 1980s.
Of course, there are many problems with these statistics and the Pikettty study in general that make them much less meaningful than often supposed. ( or as Disraeli said “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”). For example, the basic data on US incomes presumes that people are “static” and remain in the same quintile throughout their careers when this is generally not the case. So how meaningful is it to compare quintiles over time when the normal movement is to move up the quintiles thru the first 20-30 years of ones career?
Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute in a recent op-ed (“Why Piketty’s Wealth Data are Worthless” July 10th in the WSJ) points out that the Piketty data are indeed worthless. Because he uses income data solely from individual tax returns and compares these over the 1960 to today period, Piketty falls into the trap of comparing apples and oranges. For example, after the changes in the tax laws during the 1980s with the top personal income tax rate dropping from 70% to 28% and eventually settling at 39.6 % rate today, there was a massive shift in small and even moderate size businesses to S corporations which resulted in income shift from the corporate tax rolls to personal income tax filings. This means that the observed greater “concentration” in wealth in the top rate 1% category between 1970 and the post-1986 period (and specifically in the top 0.1% in the recent Zucman-Suez follow-on presentation early this year that Piketty now cites as his “evidence”), was largely a function of more corporate income being reported on the personal income tax rolls. And there are other flaws with the use of ONLY personal income tax data due to changes in tax laws over time. The 1981 and 1986 tax reforms resulted in (1) reporting of municipal bond income (for the first time) which is predominantly from the top 1% earners (2) exclusion of capital gains on most middle-income earners primary home sales and (3) an explosion of unreported and tax deferred earnings which were no longer part of taxable income largely to the benefit of those below the top 1% with balances growing from $875 billion in 1984 to $12.4 trillion by 2012. And there are many other flaws that are discussed in the aforementioned article.
What can be gleaned from all this? Unfortunately, not much. U.S. wealth may be coming more or even less concentrated but the data makes it difficult to tell. (And I am hard pressed to believe that U.S. wealth is more concentrated than most other countries including developing countries such as India where there are many millionaires but also 40% of the population living in truly abject poverty on little more than $1 a day in income). I believe in the end, fretting about “income inequality” is misplaced. We will always have income inequality to some degree, because the US is still largely based on the free market system which generally rewards people who produce more or who are willing to take risks to succeed or choose fields of work where others are not willing or able to do (i.e. the laws of supply and demand). Are there inequities? Sure, but who decides how much and whether and how to correct for these? If worker A is willing to do unpleasant or even more dangerous work or work much harder than worker B and he earns substantially more than worker B, should some of worker A’s wage be redistributed to worker B thru the tax code? And how much income inequality is acceptable?
I believe that our collective concern should NOT be that Bill Gates or other of the very wealthy few makes many, many times more $ than I do or for that matter many, many, many times more $ than a fast food worker.The real problem is that we aren’t doing a good enough job rewarding and making sure people on the bottom rung, the low-income workers, are living a decent life and that their children have the opportunity to advance and live an even better life.
I believe there are several ideas that I have expressed in this blog previously which will help improve conditions for low-income workers. Two in particular are worth noting again:
(1) Massive Tax Reform – Not to be a broken record but the “Fair Tax” which would completely scrap the current abhorrent tax system is by far the best idea. (See several of my blog posts over the past two years including most recently “Let Me Go Crazy on You” or simply go to fairtax.org). This massive tax reform would have two very positive effects for lower-income workers. For one, it would create literally trillions of $ in new growth for the US economy and millions of new jobs giving more opportunities for the working poor. Second, it would eliminate all taxes up to the poverty line of income for the working poor ( some $25,000 per year) versus the current system where there are social security/ medicare taxes of 7.65% Percent ( or almost $2000) plus some federal income taxes on those making more than $10000 to $25000 (depending on their number of dependents). Another good idea, though not nearly as extensive nor as beneficial as the “Fair Tax”, is to raise the amount of the federal personal exemption and increase the earned income credit. This idea has the advantage of actually having bipartisan support (‘both Paul Ryan’ and President Obama support it) and would be a good first albeit small step towards improving our tax system .
(2) Public School Education Reform – Our school system is not working by any objective measure. We are near last among developed countries in math and science skills and only in the middle of the pack in verbal skills. (And as many correctly argue, we probably don’t really know where we stand on verbal skills give the more subjective nature of the international comparisons). Not surprisingly, a child in an inner city or poorer school district has a far smaller chance of graduating or in gaining the skills needed to be employable than those educated in wealthier districts. While there is no simple fix for this problem, introducing school competition through a voucher system would be a good start. I have never heard a good rejoinder as to why this wouldn’t at least improve things. To be sure, this is not the only answer ( somehow reversing the deterioration of the inner city family would be the most important action towards improving children’s education prospects) . However, school choice and competition is a largely doable proposition with demonstrated success stories ( e.g. Charter schools).
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Unfortunately, there is considerable political resistance on the part of special interests such as the teachers unions, some state governments, federal and government workers unions, mortgage and realty companies, homeowners with large mortgages, some corporations and industries with significant special tax breaks to name just a few. I still remain optimistic that as people are better informed and educated about these reforms that they will gain support and eventually we may get there. In the meantime, we are stuck with antiquated, broken and even politicized public school and federal income tax systems. Let’s hope we get there soon, so we aren’t humming “Nothing from Nothing means Nothing” anymore.
While I started the month of June intending to post about public policy, I found myself too depressed to even write one word. Between the growing domestic federal government scandals with the IRS (“Oops, I lost my hard drive”) and of course, the VA, and the fact that most of the rest of the world seems to falling apart (e.g. ISIS, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, most of Africa , a resurgence of terrorism generally), I found it very hard to even begin writing. So instead I have decided to post about a happier topic and will return to public policy on my next blog post.
About a month ago, my wife and I completed our 10 day trip abroad in the Netherlands after spending the first several days in Cologne, Germany (where I chaired a board meeting of IETA and spoke at Carbon Expo, while Anne did sightseeing in the Old Town of Cologne). We saw many interesting sights in Cologne including the beautiful Cologne Cathedral which has the distinction of being one of the few buildings to have survived the Allied bombings in WWII. We also viewed the Roman Praetorian ruins dating from 400 AD with Cologne having been one of the northern Roman outposts/palaces along the Rhine River.
However, by far the most interesting experience occurred as we were walking out of breakfast our second morning in Cologne. My wife smiled at an elderly gentleman who was eating breakfast alone and he looked at us and said “Do you speak English?”. We told him we were American and got in a brief small-talk conversation, in which we both stood a bit awe-struck at this very recognizable man with a British accent. I knew he was famous but absolutely could not remember his name. Soon, our conversation was over and we shook hands and walked off. It was only then that Anne said excitedly to me “That was Anthony Hopkins”. (Apparently, he was shooting a movie called “Autobahn” and in fact the next day the walkway across the railroad bridge to the old town was closed as they were shooting a scene). We can thank the fact that he was alone and clearly starved for ANY English conversation that helped lead to our brief encounter.
In the Netherlands, we enjoyed immensely our stay with our hosts and long time friends, Janny and Paul, in the town of Haarlem just outside Amsterdam. They were just a five-minute walk from the train station which meant we could come and go as we pleased. In addition to wonderful museums ( The Rijksmuseum is a must for Dutch art lovers), the interesting canals and general scenery in Amsterdam, we enjoyed side trips to Rotterdam and the Hague where we saw the Escher museum who has always been one of my personal favorite artists. The Netherlands was also a great place to travel. Train trips between Haarlem-Amsterdam-Rotterdam and the Hague were all an hour or less. Virtually everyone spoke impeccable English which made tourism very easy but also made us occasionally guilty about being typical, monolingual Americans.
However, one thing we learned first in Cologne (and later in the Netherlands) was that the rules of the road ( or rules of the pedestrian pathways) were profoundly different in Germany. Walking across Cologne’s railroad bridge to the Old Town on the relatively narrow pedestrian walkway with Anne, I quickly learned that only single file was permissible. Even then I found myself staring down a bicyclist who was bearing down on me from the other direction and refusing to blink first. The first few times I found myself – just in time – squeezing to the very far right and stopping so the bicyclists wouldn’t hit me. Eventually, I just walked warily to avoid the oncoming bikes. Apparently, bicyclists always had the right of way not just with cars but pedestrians too!
This situation was more civilized in the Netherlands. Paths often showed where bikes and pedestrians should go and often bike paths were completely separate. But the sheer number of bicycles in the Netherlands was very intimidating. We learned quickly from our friends that bikes were not just for recreation or sports, but rather were THE mode of transportation in the Netherlands. The Dutch commuted to work, shopped for groceries, shopped in general, and even went out to bars and restaurants on their BIKES. ( In this last case, I had learned the hard way how difficult biking is “after” drinking many years ago at a liquidity preference function (LPF) at the Stanford Business School one late afternoon and then having to bike back after dark somewhat inebriated. Now that was a challenge!).
As I was often looking at my map or my google map on my phone while in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I sometimes inadvertently wandered on the bike path. Fortunately, my ever vigilant wife was usually there to get me back on the pedestrian side as quickly as possible. I admit being annoyed a few times as I was tapped on the shoulder and told “Bruce you’re on the bike path again!”. But eventually I realized that she was only trying to save me from a possible cataclysmic accident with multiple speeding bicycles.
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Fortunately, I managed to survive our trip largely unscathed. Netherlands was great fun and a wonderful place to visit, but beware of the bicyclists!
Forty-five years ago, rock music had entered a great divide which would only increase in the 1970s. It was a time of greater distinction between the FM and AM music radio dials. AM continue to feature the top 40 popular hits which included some mainstream rock but “only the hits”. FM began to feature “progressive rock” which still included the most popular rock groups (Beatles, Rolling Stones, Creedence, etc.) but also newer or less well-known groups who weren’t played or seldom played on AM (e.g. the Grateful Dead, The Band, Mountain, Country Joe and the Fish etc.). FM increasingly became album rock where multiple album cuts were played.
For this 14-year old, music from the radio was the only allowable source of entertainment in the first half of 1969 during the end of my lower-middle year (i.e. freshman year) at Taft School, though by the summer when I was back home in New York City my collecting and playing of singles and record albums began anew. Fortunately, by the fall of 1969, Taft had liberalized its rules and record players were allowed and mine was played constantly in my dorm room. Because progressive stations were only just getting started in 1969 in Connecticut, “AM radio” was my main staple in early 1969.
Rock and popular music in 1969 was perhaps best characterized by two important events in the world of music. The rock musical “Hair” moved to Broadway in late 1968 and the cast album soared to the top of the album charts during the spring of 1969. “Hair” was about sex, love, drugs and hippy communes, which was to become a dominant musical theme throughout 1969. As popular as the album was across the nation and at my prep school (imagine the utter glee of group of 14/15-year-old boys listening to some of the explicit sexual lyrics of the Hair album), perhaps more significantly, it spurred four distinctly different “covers” by popular groups:
- The Fifth Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” turned two “Hair” songs into a beautiful medley (featuring Marilyn McCoo’s gorgeous voice) which ended up being the best-selling single of the year.
- The Cowsills did a surprisingly good and fun version of “Hair” which was also a top seller in 1969.
- Oliver recorded “Good Morning Starshine” which reached #1 on the charts in the summer and was one of my personal favorite uplifting songs of the year.
- Finally, a new group Three Dog Night (which had its first major hit in the summer with the excellent tuneful and rollicking “One’), had its second major hit with its excellent cover of “Easy to be Hard” from Hair.
The second major music event of 1969 was the Woodstock music festival in August. Woodstock was the largest outdoor concert ever up until that time (400,000 people) and was a showcase of many of the major (and minor) folk/rock groups of the time. This included in order of appearance: Richie Havens, Country Joe and the Fish, Sweetwater, Incredible String Band, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Quill, Santana, John Sebastian, Keef Hartley Band, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Mountain, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Ten Years After, The Band, Blood Sweat and Tears, Johnny Winter (and Edgar Winter), Crosby Stills & Nash, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha-Na-Na, and Jimi Hendrix. Several of the acts had very long sets ( e.g. The Who performed almost their entire brand new double album “Tommy”; Crosby Stills & Nash performed 16 songs and almost all of their first album) and the music went from Friday August 15th thru Monday morning the 18th. (Interestingly, Jimi Hendrix insisted on being the last act and ended up playing Monday morning at 9am to dwindling crowds). While the number of major acts that appeared was significant enough, it was interesting how many major groups also turned the event down because they didn’t understand how big it was to be, including groups such as Led Zeppelin, the Doors and the Byrds. My favorite reason was Tommy James turning it down because he was told by his secretary “there’s this pig farmer in upstate New York who wants you to play in his field”.
Woodstock was well documented through a movie released a year later and two subsequent albums ( a triple and a double album) of concert music and sounds. It served to cement and expand the popularity of relatively new rock groups (e.g. most notably Hendrix, Creedence, and Sly and the Family Stone who all had their first records in either 1967 and 1968) and introduced most of the US to a new latin-rock fusion band, Santana, who released its first album and its catchy single “Evil Ways” that year. I was definitely too young to attend Woodstock, though one of my prep school classmates did and described with explicit detail the lovemaking and drug taking that took place all around him.
Rock albums in 1969 were better than ever. The Rolling Stones released “Let it Bleed” which is my favorite album ever by them and most notably includes three of their rock anthems “Gimme Shelter”, “Midnight Rambler” and of course “You Cant Always Get What You Want”. Interestingly, “Honky Tonk Women” ,another outstanding Rolling Stones song, was #1 for several weeks in the summer of 1969 but was NOT on the album. Instead, “Let it Bleed” had the original version of the song “Country Honk’ – a distinct country-style song featuring fiddles instead of electric guitar.
The Beatles released “Abbey Road” in the fall of 1969 featuring a free-flowing and beautifully paced Side #2 that starts with George Harrison’s best Beatles song ” Here Comes the Sun” and ends fittingly and compellingly with “The End” (though technically the short ditty “Her Majesty’ is actually the last track). Side 1 was almost as good with the two-sided hit single “Come Together” and “Something” starting the album and the side finishing with the infectious and electric “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. The Beatles also had a great hard rocking #1 single in the spring of 1969 “Get Back” which featured Billy Preston on organ. (the only artist to ever be credited on a Beatles single). In addition, they released an animated movie and an accompanying album “Yellow Submarine”. The album only had four new songs, most notably “Hey Bulldog” another excellent Lennon hard rock composition featuring great guitar and bass playing. Lastly, the Beatles released “The Ballad of John and Yoko” a good rocker about John and Yoko’s public stay-in-bed honeymoon peace demonstration. The song managed to get banned from many AM radio stations (most notably WABC in New York) because of the lyrics “Christ, you know it aint easy” and “the way things are going they’re going to crucify me” which was a thinly veiled comparison to Jesus Christ (and given John’s few years earlier statement that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus Christ” probably made the stations extra sensitive).
My third favorite album of the year was the Who”s “Tommy”. The rock opera “Tommy” was unique in rock music history (it was the first rock opera ever recorded, taking off from the Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper’s” and Moody Blues “Days of Future Passed” concept albums in 1967). However, it was also musically brilliant largely due to the extraordinary song writing and guitar playing of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltry’s powerful singing and John Entwistle’s bass and Keith Moon’s superb and often manic drumming. The album is nicely bookended by the tuneful “Overture” and “We’re not going to take it” which are also my two favorite tracks on the album. In between, there are the two popular singles from the album “I’m Free” and most notably “Pinball Wizard” in which Townshend excellently combines acoustic and electric guitar playing into a great hook line.
Two of my other favorite albums from the year were from new groups that were formed from mid-60s groups. “Blind Faith” combined Eric Clapton (guitar) and Ginger Baker (drums) both formerly of Cream with Steve Winwood (keyboards and guitar) from Traffic, and Rick Grech (bass) from Family. With the exception of the overly long “Do What You Like”, the album was excellent musically. In fact, three of the songs have become rock standards: Winwood’s beautiful “Sea of Joy” and “Can’t Find My Way Home” and Clapton’s guitar infused “Presence of the Lord”. In many respects, Winwood dominated the album, in terms of songwriting, singing (his haunting voice is prominent throughout) and even playing (he played keyboards, guitar and harmonica). The group was short-lived (lasted only 7 months), as Winwood went back to Traffic and Clapton went on to a solo career.
Another new group, Crosby Stills and Nash (CSN), was formed in late 1968 by David Crosby (from the Byrds), Stephen Stills (from Buffalo Springfield) and Graham Nash (from the Hollies). CSN released their first album in mid-1969 “Crosby, Stills and Nash”. The album has wonderful vocal harmonies and several excellent songs including the singles “Marrakesh Express” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (written by Stills about his love interest Judy Collins), as well as four other favorites of mine “Wooden Ships”, “Long Time Gone”, “You Dont Have to Cry” and “Helplessly Hoping”.
Meanwhile, Neil Young, also from Buffalo Springfield, released his first solo album “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” backed by the group Crazy Horse. I didn’t discover and buy this album until 1972 when I discovered I loved Neil Young (due to his “Harvest” album release from early that year). Yet, this first solo album contains perhaps three of classic rock’s finest songs: “Cinnamon Girl” and the long guitar-jam infused songs “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand”. This was the harder side of Neil Young with prominent electric guitar playing throughout and was to sharply contrast with the largely acoustic folk sound in Neil’s next two albums.
After their initial success with “Suzie Q” in 1968, Creedence Clearwater Revival emerged in 1969 as both a highly popular AM group and highly respected FM progressive rock group. Featuring a country-rock, rockabilly throwback sound, CCR had four excellent hits in a row “Proud Mary” (#2), “Bad Moon Rising” (#2) ,”Green River”(#2) and “Down on the Corner” (#3) and three top ten albums during 1969. However, unlike most rock groups who used B-sides of singles for throwaway songs, Creedence had four excellent songs on the B-sides of these hits, three of which charted: “Lodi” , “Commotion” and most notably “Fortunate Son” which was CCR’s most blatant anti-war song and perhaps its best overall composition of the year.
Several other popular rock favorites of mine included the Zombies “Time of the Season” which was actually recorded two years earlier right before the group disbanded, and the incredibly catchy “The River is Wide” by the Grassroots (and to a lesser extent “I’d Wait a Million Years”). Meanwhile, The Guess Who from Winnipeg, Canada first had major success in the US in 1969 with the hit single “These Eyes” and the double-sided hit “Laughing/ Undun”. In many ways, the understated “Undun” was perhaps my favorite of the three, though Burton Cummings vocals really shine in both “Laughing” and ” These Eyes”. Two of my favorite uplifting pop songs in 1969 included “More Today than Yesterday” by the Spiral Staircase (“but not half as much as tomorrow”!) and the ever inspiring “Hooked on a Feeling” by B.J. Thomas.
Soft pop-rock favorites of mine included Jackie DeShannon’s “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” later featured in the uproarious Bill Murray movie “Scrooged” and the late 1969 hit “Leaving on a Jet Plane” performed by Peter, Paul and Mary and penned by John Denver. And I was a sucker for Johnny Maestro’s comeback record with the “Worst that Could Happen” by the Brooklyn Bridge. (Johnny was the lead singer for the do-wop group the Crests, best known for their late 50s hit “Sixteen Candles”). Blood, Sweat and Tears “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” was a beautiful song though I confess that I tired of David Clayton Thomas vocal style after this first BS&T album with him (which also included some pretty good other songs such as “Spinning Wheel”, “And When I Die” ,”Sometimes in Winter” and “God Bless the Child”). And of course Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” is a slow rock classic (as well as much of the rest of his country inspired “Nashville Skyline” album). However, by far my favorite soft-rock song of the year was the classic “Get Together” by the Youngbloods which has the unique feature of being the only secular song sung by the congregation at my wedding some 28 years ago.
Just like fine wine, Neil Diamond tunes have grown on me with age. 1969 was a pretty good year for Neil with the smash hits “Holly Holy” and “Sweet Caroline” though the latter hit was spoiled for me when the Red Sox adopted it as their 7th inning stretch song several years ago. However, by far Neil’s best composition in 1969 was the less popular but thoroughly enjoyable ” Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”. Meanwhile, 1969 was a comeback year for Elvis Presley who scored with “In the Ghetto” and with my favorite Elvis song since the 1950s “Suspicious Minds”.
Perhaps to avoid the bubblegum pop/rock label, Tommy James turned to “psychedelic” rock songs in 1969 with “Crimson and Clover” and “Crystal Blue Persuasion” his two big #1 hits and , “Sweet Cherry Wine” a lesser hit. These songs were hopelessly overplayed leading to my general disdain and dismissal of them as good music at the time. However, with time and age, I find I really like these songs, particularly “Crimson and Clover” which has been covered by many artists, most notably Joan Jett in a great version in 1982.
And it’s hard to talk about 1969 without touching on perhaps the two most interesting and enjoyable songs ( but for completely different reasons) “A Boy named Sue” By Johnny Cash and “Atlantis” by Donovan. The former was vintage Cash and it was almost as if he were telling his own story as he described his fight “kicking and gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer”. “Atlantis” was pure unintended comedy with Donovan reverently describing ” the antediluvian kings” and exhorting us in the chorus “way down below the ocean where I wanna be”. But both had nice melodies and were utter fun.
On the soul and R&B side, the Temptations led the way (without missing a beat from David Ruffin’s departure in 1968) with their outstanding smash hit “I Can’t Get Next You” and the lesser known but still excellent “Runaway Child, Running Wild”. David Ruffin had his best solo song “My Whole World Ended” which sounded of course much like a Temptation song from 1967. Sonny James and the Checkmates had the great throwback soul hit “Black Pearl” and the Edwin Hawkins singers had a surprise hit with the gospel song “Oh Happy Day”. The Foundations had the highly successful and catchy “Build Me Up Buttercup” and Edwin Starr’s “25 Miles” and its refrain “Got to keep WALKING” had us all moving in 1969. The Isley Brothers had a huge R&B comeback hit with the lively “It’s Your Thing”.Marvin Gaye, though missing his collaborations with the very ill Tammi Terrell (who was felled by a brain tumor in October 1967) , still had two soul classics “To Busy Thinking About My Baby” and “That’s The Way Love Is”.However, Sly and the Family Stone were clearly the kings of R&B with two of the best-selling and best songs of the year, the upbeat soul ballad “Everyday People”, and the silky smooth and soulful “Hot Fun in the Summertime”.
Even instrumentals were pretty darn good in 1969. There was the fittingly emotional “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet” which went very well with the Oscar-winning movie that year. There was perhaps TV’s greatest theme song “Hawaii Five O” by the Ventures and two top flight songs by Booker T and the M.G.s “Time is Tight” and “Hang em High”.
1969 was not all good of course. Regrettably, Bobby Sherman decided to branch out from his TV role in “Here Come the Brides” and sing the vacuous “Little Woman”. The two-dimensional group the Archies (Ron Dante being the studio singer behind the cartoon) scored with the #1 selling hit of 1969 “Sugar, Sugar”, which also had the distinction of making my top 10 WORST singles list of ALL TIME back in 1979 in an article for the Stanford GSB Reporter. Other bubblegum music lived on with the 1910 Fruitgum Co. hitting it big with what now would be the politically incorrect “Indian Giver”.
And of course, 1969 was a bad year for several notable groups. It was the beginning of the end for the Supremes with no major hits or good songs except for “I’m Livin’ in Shame” and “Someday We”ll Be Together” which were actually Diana Ross solo efforts backed by the Andantes. This was a direct reflection of the loss of Holland, Dozier, and Holland as songwriters in early 1968 and the obvious fracturing of the group. Likewise, the Four Tops had little success or good songs in 1969 due to aforementioned loss of the HDH songwriting team. The Rascals after dominating the charts from 1966-68 had much less to offer in 1969 as their career spiralled downward. And though I liked the Doors single “Touch Me”, even the Doors had an off-year, with their 1969 album “Soft Parade” not nearly as good as their first two albums (“The Doors” and “Strange Days”) or as good as 1968’s “Waiting for the Sun”. Lastly, throughout the year and largely unknown to all of us at the time, the Beatles as a group were falling apart at the seams, (Lennon formed the Plastic Ono Band in 1969 and recorded “Give Peace a Chance” which was one clear sign). This of course was the worst of possible news for most rock fans.
Well, I have gone on way too long, and have missed many songs and albums as well (The Moody Blues two entries “On a Threshold of a Dream” and “To Our Children’s Children” will have to wait until my 1970 post next year, which is actually when I first discovered the Moodies). So what are your favorites?
Getting older is never easy at virtually any age after 30. As I begin to reach new milestones in my life, (my 60th birthday is less than one month from now), it is a constant reminder of one’s mortality. It certainly doesn’t help one’s mood, if one recalls what classic rock/folk music has had to say about aging over the years:
I hope I die before I get old (Pete Townshend)
Who’ll walk me down to church when I’m sixty years of age?
When the ragged dog they gave me has been ten years in the grave….
I’ve no wish to be living sixty years on. (Elton John)Old friends, winter companions, the old men. Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun…
Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy…
Old friends, memory brushes the same years, silently sharing the same fears (Paul Simon)Will you still need me , will you still feed me, when I’m 64.(Lennon/McCartney)
Time, time, time, see what’s become of me…
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter (Paul Simon)
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door. (Bob Dylan)God in heaven teach me how to die! (Bloodrock from “DOA”)
Yikes! Are you depressed yet? And this is but a few of the many songs about aging (and dying) which aren’t exactly upbeat. So, I decided that getting older was not going to get me down and I would look towards my 60th birthday as a happy time. However, I wouldn’t do so by kidding myself as the popular media does now by saying that 50 is the “new 40” and 60 is the “new 50” and therefore is just late middle age. Really? So if your 50s is middle age, then I can expect to live to be 100-120 years old? Only if I move to a small village in northern Finland, weave baskets and eat lots of Dannon yoghurt!
So rather than ignore or obfuscate the fact that I am clearly getting “old”, I plan on relishing and celebrating all the advantages as I turn 60 next month. In order to do so, I have created a TOP TEN list (my apologies in advance to David Letterman) of “The Top 10 Advantages of Turning 60”.
10. You can always get a table at your favorite restaurant at 5 PM , your new favorite time for dinner.
9. Your wife looks prettier than ever, particularly when you forget to wear your glasses.
8. You lose your keys but then you forget that you lost them, so it doesn’t matter.
7. You don’t have to listen to your wife’s complaints any more that you aren’t listening to her, because you can’t hear her anyway.
6. You start to actually look experienced and wise.
5. Gray doesn’t clash with any color combinations.
4. You can start rereading all the great books that you read 10-20 years ago, because you completely forgot that you ever read them.
3. You realize that Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richard are all MUCH older than you.
2. You can cite your nearly 35 years of experience in the energy and environmental fields, as support for virtually any statement you make at work.
AND THE NUMBER ONE ADVANTAGE OF TURNING 60 is (drumroll)………………………………..
1. Um…I forgot.
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Finally, I will leave you with one of my favorite songs and one of the few upbeat songs about aging by that well-known philosopher Jerry Garcia:
Oh well, a touch of grey. Kinda suits you anyway.
That’s all I had to say but it’s alright.
I will survive. I will survive. I will survive. I will get by.
That’s all I had to say, but it’s alrightI will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will surviveRead more at http://www.songlyrics.com/grateful-dead/touch-of-gray-lyrics/#7Kqx5Z2uehJrDOcC.99
That’s all I had to say, but it’s alrightI will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will surviveRead more at http://www.songlyrics.com/grateful-dead/touch-of-gray-lyrics/#7Kqx5Z2uehJrDOcC.99
It’s that time of year again. No, I am not talking about Spring (finally!) or baseball season, but rather it’s time to finish filing income taxes. Rather than bore you any more with my perennial pleas for tax reform and tax code evisceration, I will simply refer you to “Should 5% appear to small…” from March 2012 for a complete description of why we need tax reform. (I also mentioned tax reform earlier this year in “Taking care of business” with regard to job creation.) These posts outline how we can massively simplify and improve our tax code and improve the economy substantially thru the “Fair Tax” (see FairTax.org) or at least something like it.
However, when I think of taxes, I start to get a bit selfish and think of the ungodly chore that doing my taxes has become and how it somehow manages to get worse every year. But, I don’t want to talk about that in this post. No, I do not plan to vent my frustration with a tax code that is so miserably complex that you MUST purchase Turbo Tax to do your taxes yourself. (OR hire a tax accountant). But even so, you must become an expert on the tax code to do an Individual Tax Return if ,”god help you!”, you decide to take capital gains or losses in a given year, or just own an ETN ( in which case you must pay your fractional share of the ETN income or losses as well as a host of other things on a Form K-1 that I can barely understand). And don’t get me started on owning a put or call option and the requirement that it be marked-to-market in a given tax year so that you must pay capital gains even if you didn’t sell anything or realize a single penny in gains!
And this is just the tip of the 1040 iceberg, because if you itemize deductions like many of us and for example, did something nice like donate old clothes to charity, you must figure out the “thrift shop value” of those clothes to deduct them. ( I don’t know about thrift shops, but I really “valued” some of my old paisley ties, or my ” you can only wear on St. Patrick’s Day or if you win the Masters” green jacket. ). Then, if you are crazy enough to try to deduct “out-of-pocket” medical expenses, you must literally save every scrap of medical records that you have , decipher what the insurance company actually paid for and after all this work, can only deduct what exceeds 7.5% of your AGI. That’s Adjusted Gross Income , naturally not something simple like your total compensation or salary. ( For this reason, I like to refer to AGI as “Absolute Goddamn Insanity”) .
To add to all of this, you are STILL not done once you have in a state of wild-eyed exhaustion, with reams of paper receipts scattered about your desk (and sometimes your floor), finished your federal 1040 and your dozen other schedules and worksheets that must be attached. Now, you must complete your state and local taxes. Fortunately, the state tax form in Ohio is relatively simple once you have finished the Federal. But then there is RITA!
This is no “lovely RITA, meter maid” I am afraid. RITA (which stands for Regional Income Tax Authority) is the purveyor of all local taxes in Ohio and has managed to put all of its budget into Gestapo enforcement techniques, and none of its budget in explaining what should be a very simple tax. However, over time , I have learned (the hard way, after being threatened with going to Upper Arlington jail) that though federal and state income taxes do not require a dependent that earns only a few hundred dollars to file or pay taxes, RITA does. Even worse, RITA apparently believes that if your child is going to school and living in Rhode Island at Brown University and earns a few hundred bucks while at college, that they must file local RITA taxes in Ohio. I learned this the hard way when RITA in one of several nasty letters informed me that we had not filed for Kathleen in 2011 and had failed to pay the, “I’m not kidding you”, FIFTEEN dollars that we owed RITA. As a result there was a $50 fine and a summons to appear in Court. (Apparently, the RITA court is a black ops site where waterboarding is permitted). In other words, RITA really stands for Regional Interrogation and Torture Agency.
And I haven’t even mentioned that the considerable sum of taxes that our family willingly donates to the federal, state and local governments and which keeps me working into May, just to pay our taxes. Where does it all go? I realize we need a national defense but $600 billion worth! (Can’t we just hire Captain America and the entire Legion of Super Heroes and be done with it?). And of course we need Medicare for retirees and those who must go on Medicaid or other government medical assistance, but does it really have to cost almost $1 trillion a year! Then there is Social Security and my favorite misnomer in the government the Social Security Trust Fund. (No doubt this “trust’ fund was managed by Bernie Madoff as it is currently nearly bankrupt, as Social Security is NOW costing us $850 billion per year and rising rapidly). Finally, let’s not forget that one-quarter of a trillion $ is being spent on federal interest on the debt alone and this number will be increasing to at least $0.5 trillion in just a few years (optimistically), but more likely closer to $1 trillion once the effects of our insane monetary policy of the past few years fully kicks in.
So where was I? Oh yes, as I sit here in my back yard on a beautiful sunny Sunday April 13th, all I can think is “The taxman’s taken all my dough…and all I’ve got this sunny afternoon!”
The Braine Trust 