#649: Daydreams R Us

In so many ways, I'm still the same 20-year-old I was back in 1979, sitting in my parents' house, playing old albums & listening over the headphones 'til 3 in the morning while the house was quiet, playing the same songs over&over, getting lost in them & wondering what the future had in store for me.
I knew then that if I was ever in a band, it would havta make music as good as the stuff I couldn't stop listening to. I knew I could handle the lyrics, but I'd somehow havta figure out how 2 play an instrument. Something not-too-obvious. Bass, perhaps?
It would have 2 B a band that'd create songs as great as Boston's "A Man I'll Never Be" & "Used to Bad News," Journey's "Feeling That Way" & "Anytime," Caravan's "Memory Lain" & "The Dog, The Dog," Camel's "Breathless" & "Echoes," King Crimson's "Starless" & "Red," the Moody Blues' "It's Up to You" & "You Can Never Go Home," Queen's "'39" & "The Prophet's Song," Fleetwood Mac's "I Know I'm Not Wrong" & "The Farmer's Daughter." Nick Drake's "Northern Sky" & Pat Metheny's "The Search," or Gryphon's "Lament" & "Spring Song."
Was it even possible that a band could cover that wide a range? Maybe if it was a big-enough band.... I figured with me & a dozen of my closest friends, we might take a shot at it. We were all young & energetic & passionate & had lotsa great ideas. Some of us were even musicians....
That was 1 daydream: I could see us all in a studio, painstakingly creating great adventurous stuff. I could see us on-stage performing live before thousands of screaming fans. A great rock&roll orchestra & chorus. Like Paul Kantner's Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra -- only BETTER!
Most of these daydreams eventually -- 25 years later -- got turned in2 an attempt at a novel ... which went on 4 about 30 tiny-print hand-written pages before I ran out of inspiration. I couldn't see where the story went next. Still can't. Most of it seemed 2 turn in2 long meditations of nostalgia & regret, likely intresting 2 nobody but me. 1/2adozen of the best, liveliest, most-easily-understood sections were posted here a couple years back....
Another daydream was 2 Bcome a Record Company guy. Figure out how come popular music & radio got so messed up, how come the Good Stuff was so good & the bad stuff was SO bad.
4 Xample -- Why was the 2nd U.K. album (DANGER MONEY) SO MUCH weaker than the 1st -- it couldn't just have been the loss of brilliant drummer Bill Bruford & guitarist Allan Holdsworth.... (I useta spend HOURS scouring that hideous 2nd album cover 4 clues, as if the answers were all right there in front of me if I could only break the code, figure out the symbolism -- I got my answer 2 years later when Asia appeared.)
Or: Why did Genesis spend a whole album (DUKE) stuck in the mud? I'd figure it all out, create best-of albums that artists would B PROUD of, not the confused crap record companies so often seemed to put out.... Didn't they have a brain? Didn't they have ears?
I also thot at 1 point -- after I got in2 the newswriting business & started devouring books by 1 of my heroes, John McPhee -- that I might love 2 write a book about long-distance truckers. I had an uncle (& now I have a son) who was in that bizness, & I thot it might B fun 2 just hang out & soak-up some atmosphere, go along with them & see what it's LIKE: What were the demands on the body, the stress, how much of the country did they actually SEE while driving thru it...?
A week ago I learned McPhee wrote at least part of a book about long-distance trucking a few years back -- it's called UNCOMMON CARRIERS. 20 pages in, I can tell you it's got the typical McPhee magic working, the lyrical attention 2 detail, + Xtra added jokes. McPhee's 1st few books were a little formal, I thot -- brilliant, well-observed as always, but very formal. He's lightened up a great deal over the years, 2 his credit. I'll hava review of this 1 coming soon....
Long B4 I ever heard of John McPhee, while I was still playing albums over the headphones in my parents' living room, I thot there was plenty of room 4 an in-depth book on the Moody Blues. 4 me, they opened a huge door in2 Strange Music -- from their launching pad there wasn't any kind of music I wouldn't try.
+ I never thot they got their due in terms of recognition, record sales, hits or press. As songwriters, I thot sometimes that they were right up there with the Beatles -- great British pop songwriting with easy, memorable melodies, gorgeous vocal harmonies & haunting guitar & keyboard work -- they coulda had a dozen more hits if their record label had been a little smarter.
I was doubly sure a book on the Moodies was overdue when their TIME TRAVELER best-of box-set came out & included a historical essay that even I (with my limited knowledge) coulda improved upon. Looking back, it probly wasn't that bad, but I was certain at the time that it DEFINITELY didn't tell me Everything I Ever Wanted 2 Know....
Last week I learned there IS a book on the Moodies, THE MOODY BLUES COMPANION, & I am eager 2 see if the book satisfies me as a lifelong fan now, or if it would even have satisfied the ravenous 19-year-old fan that I was back when. I'll B reporting on that 1, 2....
I still think there's plenty of room 4 a Progressive-Rock/Strange-Music Encyclopedia. I've been collecting information 4 it 4 YEARS....
I didn't Xpect 2 end up blogging with all my free time at age 53. But with the time I have left, if I could get any of these old daydream projects done, I'd consider it time well-wasted....