Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Leonard Cohen
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
(Paul McCartney)
If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime's argument
That nothing comes from violence
And nothing ever could
(Sting)
Close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's allright/I don't know no love song, but I can't sing the blues anymore/So close your eyes.
Jackson Browne, version sung by Linda Ronstadt
Tell me my career just died/years ago I might've cried
/
Now I'm just too old to do it/May be true but
SCREW IT ANYWAY/Me I'm gonna have a good day today!
Neil Diamond
Neil again
Wearin' my high boots,
Got all my worldlies here in a sack
Looking for something,
Knowing that it ain't here where I'm at
Ain't looking back
I'm comin',
Ride by thumbin',
Get by bummin'
I'm on my way
Friend, have you seen glory road
Say, friend, I got a heavy load,
And I know glory road's waiting for me
My deceased loved ones again. Someone who can teach me Tuvanian throat singing. Anyone with a spare Didgeridoo.
ICARUS (Paul McCandless on oboe/Paul Winter Consort;
I AM...I SAID & I'VE BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE (Neil Diamond); RIDERS ON THE STORM (The Doors); RIDE ACROSS THE RIVER (Dire Straits); FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH (Buffalo Springfield); WHITE RABBIT (Jefferson Airplane); CLOSE YOUR EYES (Jackson Browne/L.Ronstadt); TRY (BigBrother w/Janis Joplin); PARALYZED (Rooney); BIG BRAT (Phantom Planet); HUMAN (Big City Rock); We're All In This Together (Ben Lee), and Ben's version of Modest Mouse's Float On; SHIVER (Maroon 5); Coming Up/Cumbia de Los Muertos (Ozomatli).
Sweeney (stage); West Side Story; Procession of the Nobles (Rimsky-Korsakov); Choral Fantasia (Beethoven); Kalinnikov, all Tchaikovsky, all Stravinsky esp. Firebird. Mahler's 1st, all Beethoven and Brahms Symphonies.
Favorite live shows so far
1960s: Buffalo Springfield, cello concerts with Pablo Casals, Rostropovich, Jacqueline duPre...Blind Faith, Janis Joplin, The Doors
Baryshnikov,Ronstadt, Dylan (Desire tour)
Tina Turner (Private Dancer tour), Gypsy Kings
Springsteen; my 1st oboe freelance jobs incl. Sweeney Todd; Neil Diamond at Woburn Abbey outside London; Rooney and more Rooney.
Ben Lee with Jason Schwartzman, Dr. Draw (electric violin!), The Killers, Grammy Univ. soundcheck with The Shins.
Regrets: Didn't get my ass to CB's before it closed forever. And did not see The Ramones because I didn't understand where to find good music at the time!
The amazing Gustav Dudamel:
All William Faukner. More Advanced French For Cats.
Nichiren Daishonin, Daisaku Ikeda, the Atsuhara Brothers, Shijo Kingo. My dad, my mom. Beethoven. Marie Curie. Al Gore. Firefighters, all of them.