Dorie’s Different Reality

Up to now I hadn’t got around to marking the passing of Mr. John Stewart, fine folk musician and native Californian. People my age and a bit older remember him from his many appearances on television in the late 60’s on shows like The Smothers Bros.  He played with the Kingston Trio for several years; though not one of the original three. That’s a picture over there <——– of an actual album I own- his first from 1969. He had a wonderful baritone, or perhaps it was a melodic bass. His biggest hit was the “Daydream Believer” I knew a professor of American history that ranked Stewart right up there with Woody Guthrie as troubadors go.

There were just so many talented musicians back then. Now that I think of it, I think Stewart was luckier than some. He didn’t exactly become a superstar. Harry Chapin died on the Long Island Expressway rushing to a meeting for some project or the other. Fame wasn’t kind to John Denver. I know he was happy up on stage, but it cost him a lot of happiness in his personal life. Mr. Stewart on the other hand, worked and toured and played for groups big and small for nearly 50 years. He is survived by his companion wife of 40 years and 4 children. According to one of the fan sites, John, who was 68, had been diagnosed as being in the early stages of Alzheimers. He’d written a song “I Can’t Drive Anymore” And then the other day, in the city where he’d been born, he had a stroke or an aneurysm blew. Many will miss him, but in a way, he has been spared a long hard goodbye.

Pirate Mike and I used to have a state-of-the-art (for 1973) stereo system- with the big speakers, etc. After about 20 years, the “direct drive solid state” turntable croaked. Then in a catalog I saw an ad for a plain old record player- so I snapped one up. Now I have something to play my vinyl. If the Duchess puts me in a home, she’ll have to bring along my record player and some albums and I’ll be good. I’ll sit around listening to all my many favorites one more time.

ON the sidebar, there’s a link that says Radio-your Style 24/7 ———>

that’s the link to Slacker.com. I urge you to try it out.  It’s like buried treasure on the internet. The other night I created a “John Stewart channel” and heard several fine songs, along with several other artists the Slacker computer decided I might also like.

So far it’s a free service (kewl) so go there and put in the name of anybody’s music you like and see what comes up!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Baby Boomers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.