Music

Music is where my creative journey began. As a child I had always loved listening to music, but I would never have guessed at that point I would end up writing songs and making records for ten years from 1965-1975. What I didn’t realize at the time was that music was just the first of my many sojourns into creative storytelling. I look back on that time as a golden age of experimentation and emergence. The sixties revolution was in full swing and music was the soundtrack for those changes. And everything was new. Nothing had been tried and the variety of blues, rock and roll, classical, jazz and folk approaches that emerged during that time set the tone for all that was to come.

 

As I reflect on it now after all these years there were two ways I could arrange the music from that period. The first was that I could reflect on me becoming a songwriter.

 

I have always said that I was a good but not great guitar player and a good but not great singer. The reason I could hang out with really talented, genius musicians all those years is that I could write. It began as simple comments on what was happening in my life and ended up being my first expressions in story form of my observations on the world. As I listen to all the albums now I can hear the three or four songs on each album that got close to that goal. I also heard a continuity of thought and sound that is easy to see now but at the time escaped me. You can listen to my “songwriter” collection here.

 

Second, I could produce a timeline that featured the bands and the commercial singles and special commissions we produced. You can find that story here.

 

Lastly, many years latter triggered by the events of 9-11 I began writing again. I did not have any fantasy about going back into the music business. These stories were for me, the way it had begun all those years ago just me and my guitar. You can find that collection here. They represent a sort of final statement from a much older me. As the Grateful Dead once said… “what a long, strange trip it has been.”

 

Before I get into all that though, I want to mention the healing moments with my father that resulted because of the music. After a childhood where I didn't feel particularly loved by him, he took an interest in what I was doing with my music in my late teens. This was truly a blessing for me.

 

I will let the songs speak for themselves. Enjoy…