8 posts tagged “madison”
Maybe I was too quick to give up on Spring in my last post. Two days after another record setting snowfall, we just looked out our back window to see a pair of sandhill cranes, back from their winter vacation for another summer in the marsh beyond the park behind our house. Such is the changeable weather in Wisconsin at this time of year, but you learn to take the signs of promise where you can find them, and this is surely a good omen.
My last post was a simple declarative statement of hope and promise that "Spring will come", eventually. After getting hit hard with a major snow storm Friday ("Good Friday", by the way) you begin to have doubts, but in an effort to find something positive in this temporary setback, I decided to capture it in a Flickr set. Here are a few of those shots.
Monday, December 10th, marks 40 years since the tragic crash of the twin engine plane carrying Otis Redding and his band to a gig at the Factory in Madison, Wisconsin. I was just a young GI stationed half way around the world in Japan, just happy not to be in Viet Nam, when I learned that the plane had gone down in Lake Monona in my home town. They say it was foggy that day but the real cause may have been engine trouble. In any event, only the trumpet player, Ben Cauley, survived the icy waters, and 40 years later was on hand at a memorial ceremony this past Monday at the Monona Terrace Center overlooking the lake that had claimed his bandmates.
A friend and I went to hear what Ben might have to say, and to pay tribute to Otis, a huge talent whose life was cut short at age 26 that day in 1967. What struck us most was that the crowd was made up mostly of folks our age and hardly any younger fans. What a shame to think that Otis may not have reached this generation yet.
Otis wrote a well known song about r-e-s-p-e-c-t covered by a lot of other artists, and nobody deserves it more than him. Although he had a great voice and delivery, I respect him even more as a songwriter. They say he would just sit down with an acoustic guitar to generate some ideas and often add the lyrics later, which is an approach many of us would be songwriters have tried over the years, but without the genius and talent of Otis. And the ideas were always flowing in Otis, so they say. In his short career, he wrote and recorded prolifically and some of his best material wasn't even published until after he was gone.
For a look behind the curtain of commercial success at some of his material still in unpolished form, as well as out-takes from some of his better known work, check out the album titled "Remember Me" which includes 22 previously unreleased tracks.
One of those tracks is the version of "I've Got Dreams to Remember" based on a poem written by his wife Zelma, before it was modified in collaboration with Joe Rock. This album also includes the first two takes of "Dock of the Bay" that are haunting to listen to now and realize they were recorded just days before the plane went down.
I have taken a few tracks from this album in bits and pieces and tried to weave them around the second take of the "Dock of the Bay" as my way of remembering and paying my respects to Otis. If you listen and like it, I hope you go out and buy one of his albums and get acquainted or reacquainted, as the case may be. Otis may be gone, but his music lives on.
This song was started about 3-4 years ago and is still a work in progress as a sort of cautionary tale about where the binge drinking culture on campus can lead if you're not careful. I don't want to get preachy because drinking has always been part of campus life and the sports culture here in Wisconsin and I was a willing participant myself in younger days. But lately it seems to be a bigger problem than ever and may have been a factor in the recent unsolved murder of a young woman who was out partying in downtown Madison and apparently ended the night with the wrong person, probably too drunk to recognize the risk. And there are still too many tragic articles being written about teenage car crashes after a night of partying. So if you do drink, don't drive, and make sure you have a sober friend to get you home safely.
V1: Born in Wisconsin, grew up in Illinois
raised in the suburbs, just another bourgeois boy
never had to worry, never had to choose
always liked to party if someone had some booze, got wasted
V2: Went away to college, joined a fraternity
wanted to be a doctor, but his grades were barely C's
every week a party starting Thursday night
playing king's cup in the kitchen, everythings alright, got wasted
V3: Never graduated, he wound up selling cars
got a cheap apartment to crash in when they closed the bars
tickeks for drunk driving, took his keys away,
lost his job at the car lot, just turned and walked away, got wasted
V4: Went out for a last drink, got back behind the wheel
now he's getting fingerprinted while his lawyer tries to make a deal
running through a red light, never saw the face
of the woman in the crosswalk before it was too late, life wasted
Often when things aren't going especially well, we have a tendency to think things would be great if we could just start fresh in a new place with a new job and outlook. We hear or read about certain places that are supposed to be especially attractive for the arts, music, outdoors, or whatever and we sort of wonder what life might be like there, but most people rarely do anything about it, and I am no exception. For years I have had this fixation on Portland as a place where life might be better, with both mountains and ocean nearby, and a cool cultural scene, so they say. Madison gets high marks for quality of life, but the winters here can be brutal, and you find it's a little on the small side after awhile.
So out of those wistful musings about a better life in Portland came this song which has germinated for several years in different versions and keys. This one ended up in B for a change, and starts like this:
Been a brown bag life in this gourmet town
dead end job, no good reason to hang around
gonna pack my bags and head on down the road
take that westbound highway and see how far she goes
Last night the living legend, Doc Watson, was in town and we were lucky enough to have some tickets come our way. Doc is now 84 years old and being blind, needed help to get to his chair on stage. But once he started to play you could close your eyes and never guess his age or whether his arthritis might be bothering him. He was amazing, and his voice seemed even stronger and deeper than on many of his earlier recordings.
It was purely an acoustic show with the multi-talented David Holt supplying the counterpoint in the first set on banjo, flat top, and national steel. But the real treat was a short set with Doc alone before he was joined by his grandson, Richard (Merle's son). Doc played and sang and told some folksy stories and played some more. He is more than just a guitar wizard; he has that certain presence that holds your attention and respect, and the audience loved it. We could have gone home quite happy right there, but stayed for the final round with Richard and then David both joining Doc in a trio. We went home feeling fortunate to have witnessed this icon of Americana from the hills of North Carolina since he doesn't travel much anymore, and who knows if he will ever be back this way again.
Turns out hearing Doc did a couple of other things for me last night. It reminded me how good a simple guitar and vocal can sound together and caused me to remix a song written last year with a simpler, mainly acoustic arrangement for a change of pace from some of the over-produced things I had been working on lately. Of course, the less you have in the mix, the better it should be since there isn't much to hide behind which made me reluctant to share this since it still needs work. This song, written about the idea of being ready or prepared (like a boyscout) for whatever comes at you, doesn't pretend to be at the Doc Watson level, but is hopefully in the spirit of Doc in keeping it fairly simple and straight.
The other thing seeing Doc did was give me some ideas for something new that might find a home for a simple chord progression I posted earlier as Track 54. I already found a bridge I may be able to use, and just need to work on the song concept and words, which may take some time, but I have a feeling my "dry spell" may be about over. Thank you, Doc!
Finally! Some decent weather and a chance to get out and about in the relative comfort of near 50 degrees plus. The knee high piles of crusted, dirty snow are actually beginning to melt and disappear down the storm sewer, and I could almost swear I heard a robin yesterday. Went out for coffee and thought they might actually have the chairs set up outside, but what was I thinking. This is still Wisconsin, and the fat lady of winter has not sung yet.
The official first day of spring is still more than a week away, but only one month after that on April 21st marks the return of the Farmers Market to the Capitol Square, a Saturday ritual in Madison for more than 30 years now. This year, tree removal and sidewalk reconstruction should be over so things can get back to normal, although losing so many old trees around the Square was a real shame. For you runners (and walkers), the annual Crazylegs run/walk will be on April 28th (See http://www.crazylegsclassic.com/ for more info). To get myself in the right frame of mind for the upcoming season, I dug out some old photos, and a cheesy bit of song about the Saturday ritual of circling the square that I have been working on for a couple years now. It begins like this:
Deep, in a Wisconsin winter
I am dreaming of Spring, and all the promise it brings
fresh air and hot coffee, as we circle the Square
you will find me there, at the farmers' market
One month ago there was no ice on Lake Mendota (unusual for January in this part of the country) but after 3 weeks of more typical freezing cold, voila! - fishermen can now drag a shanty out on the ice, drill their holes, and escape for awhile. Up until last year, we could look forward to more than just shantys on the ice as the "Kites on Ice" festival was aired on a February weekend. Sadly, Feb 2006 was canceled apparently because of funding problems, as well as unpredictable weather and ice conditions. But after the Feb 2005 event, I managed to sit down and try to write some words to help me remember the color and sounds, not knowing it would be the last one (at least for now).
Attached is the song that came out of that last time on the ice, and a couple of images to look back on.
