June 21, 2023 (Song #1999): “Older Sister” by Carly Simon from the “Hotcakes” album (1974). T-43 brings me to junior year of high school and 1980. Around this time, my Uncle Kenny’s third wife, Emily, gave me Carly Simon’s “Hotcakes” and “No Secrets” albums. She also introduced me to sushi. Both were life-changing.
Happy Birthday to my brother’s wife’s brother’s wife, Alisyn Camerota! xoxoLYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
June 20, 2023 (Song #1998): “The Water Is Wide” sung by Karla Bonoff. T-44* brings me to 1979 and 10th grade – another year with so many memories (meeting new friends at Staples High School, Latin Class with the juniors, Sophomore Chorus with the inimitable George Weigle, Orchestra with John Hanulik and his son, my crush, Chris Hanulik) but this morning, the blog gods gave me a little gift when I saw my friend Kevin Gillespie’s name pop up in my Facebook notifications.
Kevin and I met at Bedford El and he was by far the cutest thing you’d ever seen. In 6th grade, Kevin, Cindy and I hid in the closet in our classroom at Hillspoint School to avoid music class (I did what?!) with Mr. Itner, who had to roll an upright piano into every music class since he didn’t have a dedicated music space (we should’ve been his best students, but we were definitely not; I’m sorry, Mr. Itner.)
Fast forward to ninth grade when we spent many nights on the phone singing harmony with each other (my parents generously bought me a phone and gave me a dedicated phone line; more privilege, more to be thankful for). Kevin cracked everybody up with his rendition of a local commercial: “everybody in the pool!” and his special party trick: crying on demand. At the end of ninth grade, he was distraught because he was voted “best looking” and “most popular” and I think he had to choose; it was not the choosing that caused him stress – rather, it was the thought that people were focusing on him that made him super uncomfortable. He deserved the accolades, though.
We sang together in choirs all the way through middle and high school, ending with the Orphenians and our incredible trip to Europe in 1981. However, my favorite, favorite memory is of Kevin, me and Ed Jordan: The Ex-Orph Trio (the name did not stick, but we thought we were clever). We thought we were the Crosby, Stills & Nash of Westport; we could make harmony out of anything with me on guitar and Ed on piano and Kevin with his incredibly gorgeous voice (I’m getting weepy just thinking about it). We performed at Grass Roots (the hippy wine bar on the Post Road at the Riverside Intersection between Ye Olde Bridge Grille and the Premiere market across from Art’s Deli) and at two fundraisers for the Susan Davis Lloyd Educational Memorial Fund. We sang together until life pulled us apart. I miss you, Kevin (and Ed) but I thank you so much for the harmony and friendship. Happy Birthday to you and Mary Ellen Barry and Happy Anniversary to Lisa & Russell. xoxoxo
P.S. Around this time, I realized that many of the good songs I loved were written by Karla Bonoff; it was the first time I realized what a singer/songwriter was and I remember being disappointed that Linda Ronstadt didn’t write her own music (I’ve gotten over that. 🙂 Though Karla Bonoff didn’t write today’s SOTD (it’s “traditional”), her version, with her sweet, unassuming voice, always gave me chills.
LYRICS & CHORDS SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
June 19, 2023 (Song #1997): T-45* brings me to 1978 and 9th grade, but, as I am acutely aware that today is Juneteenth, a seriously important day in our country’s history, I have chosen to honor it with one of my favorite songs: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” sung by Etta James. This is a song I learned in 3rd grade when I was in a play that celebrated the life of Marian Anderson (click here to read yet another story, if you’re up for it). Later, I learned from Judy Miller Wheeler (my amazing and beautiful general music teacher at Bedford El) that it could be sung as a “partner song” (two or three different songs sung at the same time). Here’s my version of that arrangement, sung by me with Peter Propp and Josh Margolis. SONG HISTORY APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
P.S. Normally, SingDaily would solely focus on the holiday at hand, but, since I’ve committed to a T-60 countdown AND I have so many amazing memories of my 9th grade year, I’m going to also share some personal memories that have nothing to do with the rest of the world and everything to do with me (naval gazing, I’ve heard it called). Please know that I’m 100% aware that everything I’m about to tell you is due to my privilege as a white person in an unfair and unbalanced society that needs to change. That being said… if you’re in the mood, visit today’s www.singdaily.com Song of the Day post.
Starting in the summer before 9th grade, my family left Lone Pine Lane and moved across town, thanks to Paula Leonard, to the Old Hill section of town. From the minute we moved in, the house was filled with kids playing, singing and having fun. My parents treated the house as a thing to be played in: it came with furniture and toys and shampoo in the showers (because the house had been previously owned by George Barrie, the owner and CEO of Fabergé Inc.). In addition, the house had enough bedrooms for us all, an indoor kitchen and an outdoor kitchen, too many bathrooms, a sauna, a tennis court (though none of us became great players) and a swimming pool that, legend has it, was enlarged three times because Cary Grant insisted that George Barrie make it so. Dad, of course, added a hot tub (why not?!) and it became the center of many parties. My mother purposefully decided not to recover any of the furniture right away, even though it wasn’t in her style (she had very hip and great taste), because she wanted us to enjoy the house as a place to hang out and not worry about being careful with brand new upholstery. I remember respecting her decision (my brothers were wild), until I walked in my bedroom and saw pink satiny-swirly wallpaper and green velvet curtains surrounding the bed. As a wannabee hippy, this was appalling to me; I immediately and unceremoniously tore the paper off the walls, much to my parents’ chagrin (now they felt they had to paint it right away, which wasn’t part of their laissez-faire plan of house decorating.) But, paint it, they did…with a huge rainbow covering both walls. (Reading this now I’m overwhelmed by my parents’ patience and generosity ALL of the time.) Another amazing thing that came with the house was a new best friend: right around the corner was the huge, loving, caring Bacharach family complete with 5 kids and a young girl just for me: Jeanie! It would take a few years for our friendship to cement into the rock-solid heart center of my life that it is today, but I remember laughing every single morning at the bus stop even before we were bffs.
As far as music memories go, there are too many to list here, but you can imagine me and my friends in the “lower” living room (adjacent to the “upper” living room), eating Baskin-Robbins ice cream from the soda fountain (what!?), all of us singing songs from 9th grade chorus (“All For The Best”, a song from Godspell was a big hit in our family), plus songs from Bedford Singers where Barbara Bayers (then Candee, then Muller, now Douyard) led us with her amazing piano skills (she became a mentor to me even before I decided to pursue teaching as a career). I could go on and on, and am afraid that, as I get closer to 60, these reminisces will get longer and longer, but I will try to refrain.
June 18, 2023 (Song #1996): “Blossom” by James Taylor. T-46* brought me back to 1977 and 8th grade (and, weirdly, the SOTD is late today because in 8th grade I was a horrible procrastinator and, when I channelled my 13/14 year-old self, I suddenly felt the urge to do everything except the thing I was supposed to do. My mom is not laughing at this one…)
Weirdly, I chose today’s SOTD before realizing it was Father’s Day: this song will always make me think of my dad, an amazingly supportive father whose eyes are welling up with tears as he reads this. When dad hears me start to play the first two measures of this song, he settles in for a long smile. I learned this song from Terese Keenan, my guitar teacher after Linda Clifford; Linda must have moved away, or something, and I remember needing a new guitar teacher. All the cool girls at Bedford Junior High took guitar with Terese, thanks to Margaret Silverman, the ultimate cool girl. Like Linda, Terese also lived in a very hippyish shabby-chic apartment above a garage on Red Coat Road and she would spend the first 2 minutes of our lesson hearing me play the song we’d learned the week before, then 5 minutes playing songs for me to choose from, then the next 15 minutes writing the new song out in my notebook. This left about 8 minutes for an actual lesson, but I didn’t care because I was so happy sitting in her space and absorbing all her hippy coolness. If anyone knows were she is now, please tell her I say hi and thank you. Happy Birthday To David Burke and Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate! LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
June 17, 2023 (Song #1995): “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten. T-47* brings me back to Linda Clifford, who was an amazing influence on my life. I had so many great guitar teachers and I’m grateful to them all: Hank Anderson, Pru Gabert at the Westport Y, Joan Slosberg, Terese Keenan, Joan Sprung, (plus a teacher at Yale who taught me classical guitar, but that didn’t really take) and the beautiful Linda Clifford. (Thank you, also, to my generous, supportive parents for researching, paying for and driving me to all these lessons.)
Most of you already know that I wanted to be a hippy: I wanted to look like Linda Ronstadt or Melanie Safka – and Linda Clifford was all of this but even prettier and nicer AND she actually came to my house (I started out going to her chic cottage on Rayfield Road, but that ended when we discovered that I was allergic to cats).
Linda taught us how to grow and eat mung beans, encouraged Alex to walk on her back, hugged me when she saw that I wrote “I love Linda Clifford” all over the cover of my spiral music notebook (much to the amusement of my friends) and, best of all, taught me how to fingerpick. I remember spending hours practicing this song in my bedroom, staring at my hands.
Here’s my version of “Freight Train” (with Josh Margolis, Peter Propp and Emily Mikesell) which we added to the end of “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad”, a song that I loved because it has 3 different melodies mashed together. I am including it today so that you can hear the results of Linda’s amazing teaching, but I do so hesitantly because this song is on the list of songs with a questionable past and disrespectful roots and I know that it needs to be reconsidered.
Happy birthday to Deirdre Daly and Pam Einarsen! xoxo
June 16, 2023 (Song #1994): “Your Song”(1970) by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and performed by Elton John (here live on “Tops of the Pops”. ORIGINAL VIDEO LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
T-48* brings chills from two separate memories.
Memory #1: When the town of Westport closed Bedford Elementary (now Town Hall) and split us up into the remaining elementary schools, families on our street were sent to Hillspoint while others went to King’s Highway, Coleytown El, Saugatuck, Green’s Farms and Burr Farms (Long Lots was a junior high back then); needless to say, it was devastating. Teachers got moved, too, though, which was a good thing; we got Ed Clarke, the cool, leather & handlebar mustache wearing, motorcycle riding Art Teacher.
Mr. Clarke knew how upending this move was for us, especially those who’d spent 1st-5th grade just waiting to be 6th graders at Bedford El (where we’d have had the privilege to sit in the balcony during assemblies). One day, Mr. Clarke told me to bring my guitar to school and he had me perform outside (I remember sitting on a stone wall with my classmates on the grass in front of me at what is now A Child’s Place preschool & The Learning Community & Children’s Community Development Center – is it still all those things?). I played “Your Song” – taught to me by Linda Clifford (upon whom my whole family had a crush). I remember feeling funny about this, but trusting Mr. Clarke; it sealed me in my classmates’ minds as “the guitar player” but inspired one boy to call me “conceited”, a word I had to look up and didn’t get over until I went to therapy, which I highly recommend. Despite the confusion caused by unkind words, I’ve always been grateful to Ed Clarke for encouraging me to perform, so I, in turn, encourage my own students to perform for their peers as often as possible.
Memory #2: In 5th grade, my two best friends and I dubbed ourselves “The Three Musketeers” (original, I know) and the closing of Bedford El was especially unkind to one of our squad: Ann was sent to King’s Highway by herself, while Cindy & I were sent together to Hillspoint (scene of memory #1). There is a line in “Your Song” about sitting “on the roof and kicking off the moss” and I have very strong memories of sitting on both Cindy and Ann’s garage roofs. One day Ann and I had the genius idea to slide down her mom’s asphalt roof in an attempt to wear out a pair of jeans so they’d look cool (Ann even had her mother drive over the jeans with her car). Geniuses, I tell you: afterward, the jeans still looked brand new everywhere except on the butts where there were two big holes. My friendship with Ann survived the forced split imposed upon us by the closing of our beloved Bedford El; we bonded again in full force at Bedford Junior High (now Saugatuck) and now I talk almost daily to Ann and let her know “How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” xoxo.
If you’ve read this far, allow me to add two more thoughts: (1) today is the last day of school in Westport and I feel for the 5th graders & 8th graders & 12th graders who are about to embark on a huge change in their life; they are ready, but it is still hard. Here is the song our Grade Five Singers sang yesterday at their Moving Up Ceremony: “Am I Ready?” (it’s not the Lizzo one, though, it’s mine). And (2): today is also the last day of school for our beloved principal, Kevin Cazzetta, who is retiring from life as a principal, but embarking on a new adventure. Kevin: As Elton & Bernie put it so beautifully: it’s been wonderful to have you in our world. xoxo
June 15, 2023 (Song #1993): “Seasons In The Sun” based on Jacques Brel‘s “Le Moribond” (“The Dying Man”) with lyrics rewritten by Rod McKuen and performed by Terry Jacks. T-49* celebrates 1974, the year that this song was the #2 hit on the Billboard Chart and a huge hit during bunk clean-up at Camp Pembroke; all the key changes motivated us to sweep and clean the toilets with a little bit more enthusiasm. Happy Birthday to Justin Heller, Steve Dodd, Paula Harvey, Kurt Anderson & Linda Ronstadt. SONG HISTORY LYRICS & CHORDS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY P.S. If you want to hear the song I wrote that was inspired by my time at Camp Pembroke, click HERE to hear “World Outside“.
June 14, 2023 (Song #1992): T-50* brings me to 1973. Today is a big day for me in the recognition of my own little history: we are celebrating the moment this lucky human discovered harmony. I remember, distinctly, being in the back of a Gibb Family’s Volvo on a trip home from Aspetuck where we went apple picking. While we were concentrating hard to shine our apples using our t-shirts (I believe we were competing to see which of us could make her apple the shiniest), I became aware that the family was singing. The song was “Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose” and their voices were sweet and soothing. But then, the proverbial lightning struck when they started to sing the same song at different times. The sound stopped me in my apple-shining tracks and brought me into a totally new sphere. I am now, thanks to the Gibbs, forever chasing – and stumbling upon – beautiful harmony. I will always be grateful to have been in the way back of that Volvo; thanks for inviting me, Cyn. xoxo LYRICS & MUSIC Happy Birthday to Marissa Zeitlan & Suzanne Urban! xoxo
June 13, 2023 (Song #1991): “Brand New Key” (#1 in 1972) by Melanie. Here’s my version recorded by Josh Margolis with Peter Propp. T-51* brings me to 1972, when this song was #1 on the Billboard charts. (I was torn about what to play today, since 1972 is also the first year I went to Camp Pembroke, which has had a humongous influence on my life.) After taking my first guitar lessons from Hank Anderson, I took group lessons at the YMCA with a woman named Pru Gabert. She gave us tons of cool songs printed out on beautiful pastel-colored paper, but this one adhered to me like chain grease on a pant leg. It always makes people smile when they hear it; I hope you love it as much as I do. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
June 12, 2023 (Song #1990): Here’s song #2 for today to bring us to T-52* and 1971, another memorable and formative year for me: the year I started playing guitar. The story goes: on April 2, 1971, my sister Caroline received a Giannini classical guitar for her 6th birthday. She started taking lessons from Hank Anderson and I spent every lesson lurking in the doorway of the living room watching and listening to him teach her “Here Comes The Sun”. Caroline was not at all interested in learning to play the guitar and Hank told my parents that she might be better off with a ukulele (prescient for the Propps?). Caroline resolutely refused the ukulele and later told us that she never wanted a guitar, much less a ukulele and was completely confused by the gift. I, on the other hand, took to it all like a duck to water. Thank you, Caroline, for graciously and unintentionally giving me the best gift ever, second only to having you as a sister. P.S. There are no lyric videos with good fidelity for this song, but the visuals on this one are pleasing. LYRICS & SONGFACTS APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY