When I was a kid growing up in London I never seemed to like the same music as everyone else. It was the eighties and it was Michael Jackson, Madonna, Rick Astley the awful Rock Steady Crew or the even more abysmal early boy bands like Bros or Brother Beyond. Apart from a few left over rockers like Whitesnake or the birth of thrash metal (if you like that kind of thing) they were troubled times indeed. If it hadn't been for Pink Floyd and an early U2 it would have been all too easy to just give up.
I found refuge in the sixties and seventies. The two previous decades had been comparatively so full of promise as far as I was concerned. It was all about the Beatles and Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones and The Doors. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, The Who. I loved them all and they could do nothing wrong.
Other kids laughed at the music I played. It was so old. Stuff your parents might listen to, but the more they laughed, the more I listened and the more I found out. It is easy to see now which decades of music have best withstood the tests of time.
I discovered a lot of lesser known artists as I investigated and was sorry to hear how one of my favourites, Leon Russell, had passed away this weekend. He was an inspirational band leader, session musician and all out amazing piano player. He was the pianist on so many great tracks. It will really surprise you if you look him up. He started out on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis because "it sounded more interesting than going to college". Quite a guy.
So there I was last night playing through some archive footage on YouTube of some of Leon's songs when I happened upon some footage from a TV show in 1970 when he performs the spectacular Delta Lady with a full live band. At one point the camera angle cuts to one of the backing singers who is singing every line as if her life depends on it. She looks and sounds amazing. A great singer at the height of her powers. I looked into it a little and found out that her name is Kathi McDonald. She toured with some big names and found some success herself in the US and Australia but remained largely unknown. The footage was filmed the year before I was born and Kathi was 25. I don't know why but I was shocked to find that she died in 2012. I guess it was just looking up information on a young vibrant singer and finding out that she died a few years ago in her sixties.
That's the thing about my place in the world in my mid-forties, I suppose. People who you remember being young are now old and, of course, falling off the perch. It is brought home because, as of the early 70's there are glorious technicolour images of these people being young, dynamic and fantastic.
It has reminded me how important it has been to get my priorities in order and say goodbye to the drink. There really, really is no time like the present.
Anyway, here's to Leon and Kathi and remember to make the most of it all. Have a great Monday!