Happy Father's Day

"Independence Day" - Bruce Springsteen

Happy Father's Day to all. I was lucky enough to spend last weekend with mine, who is 80 now, but still remarkably healthy, vigorous, and sharp. Fortunately, I never had any of the angst with him that Springsteen remarks upon in this remarkable song. Just the opposite really.

And the reality of of getting older hits again today, as my own boy is a couple of hundred miles away visiting his girlfriend. He's hopping on a train later and returning on his own from Western Massachusetts. The time goes rather quickly. So I think I'm going to take Stanley out to the dog park for my father's day outing while it's still only 80 degrees (at 7:00 AM). We're heading for a beastly week here, with temperatures in the 90s every day.

Sorry for the light posting this weekend -- I had a number of commitments, a couple of which I'll post about soon I hope. In the meantime, have a wonderful day.

Comments

[litbrit]

Happy Father's Day, Sir C, and all the fathers out there, too.

I'm too foggy to write much at the moment, but I hope to have a post up later. Hope to, anyway.

May we all appreciate our parents today. Me, I am so grateful for my incredible father, Peter Newell, who is driving up this afternoon to collect two of the three lads and take them back to Myakka for a few days, giving me a much-needed break (and giving them the opportunity to go hiking in the Myakka National Forest and see some incredible wildlife).

Thank you, Daddy. I love you, and I love you for always being there for me.

[litbrit]

And thank you too, Mum, for everything. (I think I should write a thankful post, on behalf of all children, expressing gratitude to our parents. I don't know if they'll see this, and our parents deserve to be appreciated.) (Forgive any odd word choices or misspellings, dear C--you can probably imagine how odd it is to try to write while medicated and find yourself unable to retrieve simple words from the brain vault and spelling things backwards.)

[big bad wolf]

very nice, SC. when the river came out, independence day resonated with me; it still does, though now from both perspectives. even when one has a pretty good relationship with one's dad, as i did, there is still that sense that one needs to break free, to show one's independence and (often delusional) skill, to apply the easy fix to the world that somehow dad forgot. from the other side, though my son is young, i am not particularly, one sees that even in the best of lives, time is attrition and life is contigent more than controllable.

i'd like to hear bruce's take, in a story from the stage, not just a song on the other side. he told such wonderful stories, until, in the mid80s he stopped telling them. sure, he told them a lot, but they sounded like stories. of late when he speaks they sound canned.

the ipod shuffle played manfred mann's pretty flaminog to lead off the morning. it's a pleasant little pop song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvtqmqBiiM&feature=related

here's bruce with it in 78, leading it with a great, funny, vulnerable story, then finding a depth to the song that isn't there with manfred mann. and closing with another great little story that is both funny and boastful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYFx4Yr8-D8

[low-tech cyclist]

As this is my 57th Father's Day where I've had a father, but only the second where I've been one, today has definitely been all about the boy. Especially since he was actually aware, this year, that this was Father's Day.

Cooked pancakes and bacon for all of us in the morning, which he loves, then watched him while he splashed around in our wading pool a bit, then we went to a playground (too much sun, so we didn't stay long), then to the hardware store together (to my surprise, he remembered having been there with me last summer), then lunch and more time in the wading pool before he came inside, started watching a DVD, and fell asleep as if poleaxed.

Called my dad, of course - he's coming up on his 85th birthday, and after decades of a complicated relationship, we managed to get to a place several years back where we're finally comfortable with each other. He's in good shape for his age, and his dad lived to 94, so I'm hoping that I get to enjoy another decade or so of his company. But if not, I'll still always be thankful that we got past the difficulties, awkwardness, and confusions of the past, while there was still time to enjoy each other unreservedly.

[minstrel hussain boy]

woke this morning fairly exhausted. we left it all on the stage last night. along with many glib denials as to the identity of that marvelous singer with us.

highlight of the night was when with the bird on harmonica, me on the national with corecedin bottle, and that beautiful deep baritone growling sun house's immortal "death letter." that is a foundation song of the blues. many other songs sprang from one of it's couplets.

">son house

in this age of cell phones and twitter we were at standing room only half way through the first set, with a line out and down the block for the rest of the night. final set was 90 minutes instead of the usual 45. we quit because we had to.

every time we finished a song i'd say something along the lines of "who is that dude?" the crowd would roar his name and i'd say "no, no, that can't be him."

[Sir Charles]

mhb,

How fabulous. And you taking up the white man's burdon.

[kathy a.]

happy father's day, dads! this is the first year that neither kid has been around, so my beloved and i went for a little hike up in tilden park. we had to stop by the little farm, one of his favorite daddy/kid spots, to see the animals and all the little kids.

mhb, sounds like an amazing show!

deborah, hope you are feeling better.

[Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle]

big bad wolf:
The link for the Springsteen version of Pretty Flamingo is messed up. You need to copy the link and paste it in another window. Clicking on it gets you back to this post.

[Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle]

Sir Charles:
Despite sometimes harsh words, I want to wish you, your father and any other father here a Happy Father's Day. Also, great stuff putting up that Springsteen. I know it's on the Live 1975-85, but there is that great story about Bruce and his dad, and his dad always referring to Bruce's guitar playing ... calling the guitar .. that god damn guitar .. not a Gibson or Fender guitar .. it's a classic story

[minstrel hussain boy]

it was amazing. right now, my friend and almost favorite singer is under a horrendous contract with soulless japanese motherfuckers from sony. they are in absolute micromanaging bullshit control of when, where, how long and what he plays. they also don't give a good goddamn if they work him to death. christ he's older than me and they have him doing three and four shows a week in a pretty nearly endless schedule.

they absolutely refuse to allow him to explore or do things like robert johnson, son house, or django. they want only tried and true tunes, done in the approved sony label way,

god it sucks out loud.

here's that son house clip that i screwed the link up before

tuna, blues and albacore are biting off of ensenada. boat leaves at ten, start fishing at dawn, back tuesday morning, hopefully with a grip of fish.

[big bad wolf]

calvin, here's the link. i hope. it's audio only, but the story is so great and the version so good. he is so good at finding the complexity of sadness or weariness that so often coexists with other feelings. his twist and shout is the happiest sad song i've ever heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYFx4Yr8-D8

or maybe here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYFx4Yr8-D8

or maybe i should just stick to print

[Sir Charles]

Calvin,

Thank you.

mhb,

Good luck with the fishing. That sucks about the unknown singer.

[Eric Wilde]

Happy Father's Day, y'all.

[big bad wolf]

calvin, it still don't work and i still don't understand this world. you can find it on youtube by searching pretty flamingo and seattle arena. sorry

[big bad wolf]

my son turned six on thursday. one of the things he got was a marble run. watching him put it together astounds me. i look at the book that shows the different designs and i see only things that i don't understand how they were made. my dad was an engineer, but clearly none of that got passed to me, apparently spatial relations skips a generation.

calvin, that said, here's my latest attempt to somehow mess up the springsteen link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYFx4Yr8-D8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYFx4Yr8-D8

[big bad wolf]

did it wrong again. ah well. calvin copy it into the browser. it's the least one can do for bruce, and it is worth it.

[oddjob]

they absolutely refuse to allow him to explore or do things like robert johnson, son house, or django. they want only tried and true tunes, done in the approved sony label way,

god it sucks out loud.

Even as a strictly amateur tenor who sang classical music in choirs of various sizes I understand why this is evil!