Recovering Absentee

Well, I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed me. This is an excellent release and it took me the longest time to get back into this silly new blogger. Anyway, at some point today I thought about Sgt. Pepper's and decided to use the picture. That's the end of the story though because I think I forgot why. Maybe it was that this album had a profound impact on me in 1967. I think this was when I started reading more about Haight Ashbury in Tiger Beat and wearing beads. Heck, I was making my own beads and for anyone else who wanted them. All the time. I know I was constantly saving money for new 45's and albums. Music was my life so when the Beatles took us in a new direction, I was right there with them. The stuff they did before this I could take or leave but this one was finally on the right track. I liked pretty much everything after this. I guess you'd call it the turning point for me.

I remember standing in front of the television on a Sunday night in 1963 when The Beatles were first on Ed Sullivan thinking what in the world are those girls screaming about. The guys were dressed in monkey suits, with stupid hair cuts and the songs they sang repeated the same stupid lyrics over and over (She Loves You, Ya, Ya, Ya, or the classic, I Want To Hold Your Hand, etc.).

So, anyway, I was still enamored of Elvis Presley at this point. My girlfriend, Julie, and I would spend hours writing novellas (on my portable Singer typewriter) where we met him, usually with the music from his newest album as the backdrop for the story. Those are something I really wish I had kept. Oh well. I mean, how can anyone argue with his image in Blue Hawaii or Harum Scarum, he was a hunk regardless of his private habits. On this subject, I will take no arguments. Yes, he became a bloated, sweaty drug addict later but at this point, in the mid-60's, he was what Gidget coined a "dreamboat". One of the funniest gifts I ever received from my Grammie was the Harum Scarum album. I was so excited to get it and I don't think she had ever even heard him sing. I believe the parental units gave her a big hint and sure enough, she hit the jackpot with me. I remember I had my arms around it and probably even slept with it. There was a big, color, glossy photo of him inside...I'm surprised I didn't faint. I'm sure my friend Julie screamed when she saw it. The odd thing is I don't remember her having any of these, they were all at my house. I punched a hole in the upper left corner of each album cover and hung them across my wall.

Well, that's enough reminiscing, I need to grab some vegies for dinner now that it's 9:30. It didn't take me long to get back to my old tricks. Anyway, I'm back!