Happy F'n New Years

“Chew, what if you took your soul’s ear to a real blues club on Happy F’n New Years Eve?”

He closed his eyes, self-sedating.


Yeah, you know it’s “wrong”. Yeah, you know…everybody else is… Everybody?

First, it’d be quiet. Quiet so’s you can suck the marrow out of any subtly there is. Yeah, that kinda quiet. A dead man frozen just short of six feet under on a dead-still wind night quiet.

Then, it’d be SEXY DAMN GOOD, whatever IT was. No matter how you mix up those words, it’ll never be all bad.

Now that I have your attention. Full attention. I thought I’d pull down some 25year old in flame-charred oak casks for your ear buds or flood your crystal glass snifters decanting each ear with mello-eaze. Here’s the play list:

1. Start off with “Have a Little Faith in Me” by John Hiatt. A classic sound: The piano and human voice. Alone. Together. Nice. Don't worry, Joe Cocker's coming.
2. Next, “Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt. Heroic blues. Tebow blues. A good soul cleanse, just in time for a new year... and another season.
3. “Feelin’ Alright” by Joe Cocker. The irony. Don’t forget this confused crazy downer disguised as a battle cry.
4. “Wild Horses” by the early Rolling Stones. A James Brown kinda slow dance. Baby. Baby. Skinny white boys can try, cain't they?
5. Right turn, “The First Day in August” by the bare, innocent soul Carole King. A thirty-something then, remembering what it was like to be thirteen before even then. I love the over-production, perfect for our witless hope.
6. Now stay with her, different flavor now: “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley, the only romantic without a heart. Tin man. He still nails it. As did Tin Man.
7. Right turn again, [you’ll pick it up by the end] “(So You Want) To Make a Memory” by Bon Jovi. His name alone makes girls twenty years my junior swoon. Got me with just one line in this one. Love to rewrite the rest.
8. Time to take a breath. “Lily Was Here” by the sensuous reed perfectly named Candy Dulfer. What is it about taking a clarinet out of young girl’s hand and replacing it with a sax? She’s perfect for Bill Clinton. [Made you laugh, sucker.]
9. In to the deep now. Like darkening deep water. “Tin Pan Alley” by Stevie Ray Vaughn. Forget the subject matter. Listen to the man and his guitar, the pace is barely breathing. It’s good and late now. It ain’t over yet.
10. “Texas Flood” by my same boy. Yeah, he made the list twice. Listen to this one twice, too: Once for the man singin’, the second time for his soul guitar.
11. Nostalgia is cheap. So why not use lots of it and wrap this up? [What an economy, huh?] Billie Joel’s “Captain Jack”. No one can take you down and back up so fast in five minutes. All is right, again. Guess I’ll go to bed. New Years Eve.

May the night be the way you want it. A good, simple measure of any good night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McI1NJ_iG24 "Tin Pan Alley" Stevie Ray Vaughan & Johnny Copeland - Tin Pan Alley (Montreux) part 1

Nothing tastes as good as writing well.