Reader's Choice

I got some interesting posts and emails when I asked you for inspiration when at a time when I couldn't find any. I promised answers so here they are:

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Take a song...any song..and write about what it means to you. What is your favorite? Which one inspires you? Is it the orchestrations or the lyrics that grab you? What MOVES you to laugh, cry, shout, sing???

Thanks, Suzanne, for one of the more sane questions. :-D

OK, here goes.....

The song that grabbed me the most was so intense I can't listen to it unless I'm already braced for a serious cry and being in a funk for the rest of the day: "I Miss You" from Mayflower. The song just spells out your worst fears - losing your spouse and having to live without them - without any allegory or symbolism, it's just raw and right there, unavoidable. I can't handle it. It's arguably the best song on the record and it's so intense I can't handle it. Go figure.
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What's your favorite Barry video and why?

This one's easy: The "First" disc from First & Farewell. Forget production, forget video quality (there isn't any) forget costumes and confetti cannons. Even forget Clive Davis because this show was taped long before he came along! What's so cool is those of us who were just little kids when this show took place get to see the very core of where all of Barry's music came from. This is what Davis saw when he took over Bell and created Arista. (And Barry doesn't understand what Clive saw in him - open your eyes, man!!) And most of all, the stories. I'll never get tired of the "Richmond, Indiana" story. Sure, he went into more detail in Sweet Life, but it's more fun to hear him actually tell it.

Maybe I can just relate to this one. First time I spent any serious amount of time in Indiana, I was travelling with my then-fiance visiting fraternity brothers and relatives. We drove across the state for about 45 minutes and the scenery never changed: corncornbeanscorntreeshousecorncorncornwheatcorncorn.... I turned to him and asked, in all dead-seriousness, "Have we actually GONE anywhere yet???" The "landmarks" were all the same all along the highway! Plus, my now-other-half has been to Richmond and comes from a similar small farm town himself in that state. He thinks it's amusing that all of us "city folk" get frustrated at how little there is there. He thinks Barry's description is dead-on.
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What's your wildest fantasy about Barry?

I can't believe I'm even going to answer this.

The gutter-dwellers can consider themselves excused, this is not going to be what you think it is.

In Atlanta, there's a major museum called the High Museum of Art. They have all kinds of programs, even for kids, and including music. On the third Friday of the month, they have "Jazz at the High" where artists showcase their music and occasionally give lectures on the form.

My fantasy is for an "unannounced" show where Barry performs what he loves best. Not with his real name - use a pseudonym (like when Garth Brooks used to play tiny clubs for the hell of it, he'd call his band "Yukon Jack" so no one would know until they got there.) There wouldn't be any other announcement - well, maybe a friend or two and I would get tipped off. But we wouldn't tell. ;-)

No production, no costumes, no choreography, no concern for what is going to be a hit, no pressure from the record company or the hotel to deliver sales numbers, no "Sex God", no "Blue Angels" security, nothing but the kind of music Barry loves to play for its own sake. And just folks in the audience who want nothing more than to hear and understand what he hears and feels when playing it.
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Hope you all have a great Monday tomorrow!
MUAH!!!