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CHRONOLOGY 70: JLHS Part Three 23

Sat., Sep. 25, 2010

… She more or less said that she didn’t think that she could get access to a piano at home. She said that her mother wouldn’t allow music lessons. That’s probably a Muslim thing. I discouraged the lesson for that reason because, of course, if you can’t practice during the week, a lesson once a week isn’t going to do you much good. I don’t want to waste my time if the student won’t be able to practice. So that one could be off.

That lesson was interrupted when Katheryn [name] needed help on finishing a paper for college now on Thoreau and civil disobedience. So I helped her get that done and printed it out for her. It was due that very day. I think she made it but I never saw her after that and don’t know how it went. I don’t see her or Tejeda much during the day.

I practiced the piano a bit myself. So it was something like 4:30 when I got to the D train and, strangely, there was Lisa. This was a strange coincidence because the only time I ran into her last year was on my birthday. This happened to be the day before my birthday. I hadn’t thought much about my birthday. In fact, when Andy came up to me and said something about the number “58”, I didn’t know what he was talking about. But I’ve got my birthday out there on Facebook so the secret was about to get out. In the past my birthday had always slipped by before anyone at school asked about it.

Not the case this year. All day Wednesday I was getting reminded of my birthday. But Lisa saw me and said hello as I was opening the Tattoo book. She said that she had read it and didn’t think much of it. I said that something spectacular had better be happening with this missing girl who was obviously still alive. I’ve since found out that she simply ran off and became rich as a sheep farmer in Australia. That was anti-climactic but this ending where he discovers that the tattoo girl is a hacker with a photographic memory who saved his life and now is helping him bring down the guy who sent him to prison is more interesting that the missing girl plot. The girl is an interesting character.

We got on the D train to find that it was running local because of police activity somewhere. So we talked for about 20 minutes. She said that she didn’t know how long she’ be staying in New York but that she was happy enough right now to be teaching even though she wasn’t getting any writing done. She hasn’t been writing music reviews. She had gone home over the summer and had made stops in Chicago and Boston. She asked if Geoff was still living with us and I said that he was although I don’t see much of him. I did mention that he had made a movie of some sort. I figured that that might be of interest to her. I remember when Mandy and I sort of tried to set the 2 of them up at the dog park that day but Geoff seemed to be in some sort of mind trap.

There was nothing awkward about our talking. We spent a lot of time together that year. I haven’t had anyone like that since, although Andy is now back and he can fill that void some. He’s a poet and we’ve decided to start writing poetry weekly again. I mentioned that to Lisa and invited her to join but I don’t think she really got the gist of what I was saying. When we finally got to 59th St. where I was getting off and she was going on, I said how amazing it was. She gave me one of those wide-eyed looks, not knowing exactly what I was talking about. I just said that it was amazing how seldom we ran into each other. “I never see you,” I said and that was it. I hope she understood that I was saying that I miss her. I do miss her but haven’t thought much about it over the past year.

This brings me to my birthday, Wednesday, Sep. 22nd. I got a lot of greetings during the day from adults and kids and that felt good. Dalwind stuck his head into a 9th grade class and wished me happy birthday, whereupon the class took up the song for my benefit. That was really nice. I’ve got 2 9th grade classes and I’m having fun with both of them. As I said up there, I’ve had probably the best couple of weeks of teaching that I’ve ever had. I’ve actually looked forward to going in there and doing it.

I was looking forward to the Threads session because after Greg’s phone call, I figured we’d all be there and that we would all be trying to hit the songs just right. After last week, anything was bound to be an improvement and therefore more fun. I called Luz at around 4:00 to invite her to have dinner with me. I think she sent me a text saying “happy birthday.” She said she would call me back but didn’t by the time I left there at about 5:45. I headed for the Pig & Whistle. When I came up from the subway, she had called but she didn’t pick up when I called her back. I was happy about that because trying to meet her is never pleasant and I didn’t have much time. I certainly didn’t have an hour to wait around for her.

I had the usual dinner and talked to the hostess some. Edward showed up and drank 2 beers with me before we headed upstairs. We were in Studio 3, which is small. It was hot and we didn’t want the air conditioner on while recording so the room turned into a sauna by ten o’clock. You can hear Edward complaining about that on the recording. I told the guitarists to turn their amps to face the 2 corners of the room opposite the p.a. I wanted to get maximum guitar separation and that happened. I used two room mics again and placed them between the P.A. speakers and the guitar amps. The drums are picked up this way in stereo. I couldn’t tell much about the balance and the separation in the sound check but the recording turned out good. The piano is a little under volume but I couldn’t tell that in the room. I was sitting right below one of the p.a. speakers.

We went through the play list as mentioned above.

Sun., Sep. 26, 2010

5:09 a.m. Green Grass. Geoff came back from New York with an organic salad. I don’t know what he was doing in New York but he got here about 7:30 and I didn’t see him again. That became my dinner so I ended up eating fairly well yesterday in spite of the big Mexican omelet at the Linden House. That is a very large meal. I don’t know how many eggs they put into that thing but with the peppers, tomatoes and onions, half a plate of home fries and 2 slices of rye bread, that is a significant meal. I also drank 2 glasses of root beer yesterday.

I had been doing some writing here and I had started up the play list so I input the 3 albums that had arrived – the last Shondells album and 2 solo Tommy James. So that number after T.J. & the Shondells there in my little list – 632 – is off by about 30 songs. It’s now at 644 but I’ve already removed a bunch as it plays through. Today’s starting song is #95 (above) and I still like that album. Don’t ask why. It’s not purely nostalgia. I liked it back then even as I knew that Gary Lewis wasn’t much of a singer. I still remember the day that I left Loran Andrews early after taking a final exam. I must have had a few bucks in my pocket because I walked into town to the Super Center, bought this album and then walked on home. It was great to be going to school so close to downtown Massillon – I used to walk from Loran Andrews to the bank building at the center of town for my orthodontist appointments, too. Also interesting is that at that age we were allowed to leave school early and walk home.

Anyway, I’ve now got all of the Shondells albums. I don’t remember this last one. We had only the Greatest Hits at the time but I remember seeing most or all of the others. I don’t remember seeing any of the solo albums and the only song I remember is Draggin’ the Line and I didn’t like it. It sounded old-fashioned with that doo-wop voice coming in there but it was a big hit. It must have been some sort of full circle for Tommy James, who had spent a couple of years playing relatively decent psychedelic music. I didn’t remember ordering the Travelin’ LP and was expecting the CD with the 2 Mark Lindsay albums. I’m still waiting for that one. I wonder if I can track it …. It says not yet shipped but still has a “delivery date” showing as “Sep. 15 – Sep. 25”. Today is the 26th.

Well, I just put in the Citibank information. Evidently the CD had not been successfully paid for. I couldn’t tell that for sure but since it’s coming from Amazon itself, that seems likely. If it goes through now, it should still get here by the time I get to the end of this play list, which right now stands at 30 hrs., 17 minutes and 15 seconds and I don’t have much time to listen to this stuff anymore. I hope to be able to listen to it some today. I don’t know if I’ll run today. I was so exhausted yesterday, I might just rest today. I felt like I was on the brink of getting sick yesterday – that’s how exhausted I was – and I don’t want that to happen especially when I want to put a lot of energy into the Green Threads right now.

There isn’t much more to say about that last session on Wed. – my birthday. It was very hot in there and by the end we were all sweating profusely. Edward kept opening the door between takes because the hall outside must have been 20 degrees cooler than inside the room. We only took one short break. I got about an hour and a half of recording in the room, which included some of the chatter that went on between songs.

I don’t know who paid but Greg slipped a one-hundred-dollar bill into my hand at the end of the session even though I had told him not to worry about paying me back. Clete walked east to the R train with Greg; Edward and I hopped into a cab that got me onto the 10:18 and I was glad for that. I wanted to get that extra hour of sleep. That train gets me in bed around 11:00 and that’s not too bad for me as long as I’m sleeping more other days during the week ….

Note: Green Grass was the 7th single for Gary Lewis and the Playboys. It reached #8 in the spring of 1966. So it was likely in June 1966 that I made that trek into town to buy the Hits Again LP. I’d earlier acquired their 2nd album, Session With Gary Lewis & the Playboys. I liked them both at the time although now I couldn’t recommend with LP beyond the hits. Both albums were mostly filler - covers of current hits that in no way replicated what made those songs hits. Green Grass and Sure Gonna Miss Her, on the other hand, the two original hits on the album, I do recommend. I don't know why exactly but I still like these records. Since it wasn’t the voice, it must have been the song, the arrangement and the production. Lewis had a very good team behind him that often included Leon Russell and Bones Howe. They knew what they were doing in a recording studio. Sure Gonna Miss Her, which reached #9 earlier that spring, remains one of my favorite songs of the decade.

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