What were the odds of me being alive today?

It is Sunday evening after Thanksgiving Thursday 2010. 

I spent the day with my boys.

As I was driving home a song came on the radio on a country station.  I have one country station preset and three rock station presets that range from classic rock to today's rock.

The song was "All I want for Christmas is you" came on the air.  It was being sung by a country singer who did a good job but could not hold a candle to the original artist, Mariah Carey.

When I arrived home I turned on my PC. 

I was in luck.  My Uverse was operational which has not been the case much in the last week.

I looked up the song by Mariah Carey.  There were many versions from the past years.

I found one version that caught my attention which I posted to facebook. 

My comment on the post was:  For the holiday season. A bit old, a bit dated, grainy video. But a great crossover of so many music periods from the Phil Spector's wall of sound days, backup harmonies of the sixties that set standards used today, video style of the sixties, a great voice, a great piece of writing from Mariah that has been covered by so many other folks today.

The production and video reminded me of TV shows of the era; Whisky a-go-go, 9th Street West, Lloyd Thanxton, Shindig! and other music shows decades before MTV was even a dream.

Comments started to be written to my facebook wall.  I commented back to some of the comments:  When I was 17 I had a girlfriend, Kathleen B. Henn who was a dancer on Whisky-a-go-go and Shindig TV shows. She later became a stewardess for Eastern Air Lines and told me their motto was ... "when the birds won't fly Eastern will". She lived on Calneva in Encino. If anybody knows where she is let me know as she was very cool and I would bet she would still be cool today.

I thought back on what I had done in my life to this point and was somewhat amazed I made it this far. 

I have often remarked that photographs are for people who can not remember things in their life.  Photographs are nice to share with others though.  I have been taking photographs since I was about 13 years old.  I rhought of the photos I had in storage where my boys live.  Many of them going back to about Junior High School.  Most folks reading this might not even know what I am talking about when I say Junior High School.

The sixties and all that come to the minds of many when they think about this era.  I was in the middle of it all. 

Over my life I have been asked; "if you could pick when you were born what would be your choice?"  My reply has never changed.  I would want to be born when I was born.

Psycedelics, concerts, The Fillmore, Haight-Ashbury, The Cheetah, Sunset Strip, driving my 1957 MGA on Sunset Blvd from the sea to the end of the strip, Vietnam was probably the only downside to the era.

The Shangri La's who were a part of my life prior to the British Invasion.  I posted a video set of them and wrote this to my boys as I shared the link with them on facebook:  To my two boys - go into your mom's cabinet where my photos are and look at the pictures of my car with the girl checking the oil, on the roof, under the car and in the trunk and then look at the lead singer in these videos.

I posted a video link to the Ronettes with a comment:  Check out the backup dancers. Things have come further with dance than they have even progressed with audio and video advances :-)

I look back on the path I walked to get where I stand today.  My most recent status update on facebook prior to writing this blog entry was:  I heard a song on the radio when I was driving home which made me look up the original song on youtube. Looking at some of those videos I recalled the past and wondered how I ever made it to my current age and makes me realize that if I died tonight, as one song lyric from the past says ... " long time comin' " and I would not think I left all that much uncovered or not experienced.

In the Mariah video some of the things I like:

1 - the backup singers and their harmony arrangement
2 - Mariah's mini-dress being even shorter than the dresses on the dancers
3 - Recalling how Carol Norman in High School used to be sent home at least once a week for her mini-shirt being too short.

Myles Rose is the founder of Guitar Amplifier Blueprinting which provides support services and training for touring bands and individuals as well as blueprinting services.   You may contact me from the link.  My direct contact information is provided as well as links to two of the Internet forums where I answer technical questions.  You may also ask questions in any post in this blog by using the comment application on each post.

When I am not doing something related to music I do what I can to support the homeless of Los Angeles either directly on the streets at night or through my good friends at Union Rescue Mission.

www.urm.org