Looking Back To Capture Old Memories That Linger That Once Blazed High, Searching For Judy Collins And Stephen Still's Album Collaboration

     Life is wonderfully strange and delightful, mystical, grounding, filled and aflame and deeply troubling, ... I get mired I get down and lethargic, yeah, even me : My Positive sunshine!

     I remembered my days at Lawrenceville Prep School 1969-71 and I was moved to tears of joy and frustration, loneliness, wonder and questioning, love and madness and art and so much to elevate and depress and grow even amongst the crumble, crumbling, creeping, running, ranting, listening to music : a great salve and salvation most every time .

     Yes, I had my music, I clung to it, I cherished it, I adored it, I lived it.

     The tie-dyed glorious bursts of exotic Indian colors of sheets hung from the walls, the posters, the globs of oils and colors rising and falling in those mystical lamps, the records and record players, and so much more

     Only guys, Neanderthals for the most part at Lawrenceville Prep School, the observation that girls were like the incredible animals we saw at the zoo, behind bars, untouchable, magical, wonders to behold and wonder and want them to drive us mad, as well as boys longing for other boys, the sports, the competing, the tearing apart with glee of others as we rose : ascension by depression was a term I often heard.

     Some really nice guys, not all Neanderthals, many crazed and crazy-focused on grades and sports, on hobbies, on surviving, on graduating to the Ivy League ranks, and so much more.

     I loved my music and listened to it a lot. I remember buying an album by Judy Collins, the only one that really ever spoke to me : " Who Knows Where The Time Goes ". It had a blue cover, I lost it somewhere in the shuffle of growing up and moving on and along. I knew that Stephen Stills played on it, I remember that it gripped me each and every time that I listened to it. The words, the sounds, the stories and emotions. It was filled with emotions, ideas, images, aall that spoke to me deep inside of me.

     I was caught up in this album and it made me appreciate Judy Collins like never before. She had me, now she still has me! I never did hear her sing live, and I only once saw Stephen Stills play, once in Paris when he came out at the end of Veronique Sanson's concert there. I still have my tickets. I wrote a blog on that , too here on Chatwine BlogSpot, check it out sometime.

     Anyway, I went in search recently of this album that I no longer had, I wanted to find it again, listen to it, and see if any of the original appeal and pull, stick, and
strike, the bam and the boom, the ahhhhhs and the sighs and the grins and the rest were still there for me?

     I finally found it recently and it was all there for me : in spades and shovels, heaps and mounds, mountains, hills, flowers, vales, valleys, forests, and ravines, crags, mires, moors, all : and yes Judy : " they did to your question : the flowers , " and did they not smell of me?"

     SO : I will continue this later. Scroll down through these last posts and look for the Tuesday weekly store email I posted from my wine store Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits and read that, too. That was the email I wrote for that week inspired by listening to this copy, this cd I have right here next to me now as I type, on my side. But I have to finish this later as I have to get off to work now.

     My observation amongst all the others : it takes a village of musicians to make a work of great art like this album, so thank you all beaucuoup Michael Sahl, Stephen Stills, Chris Ethridge, James Gordon, Judy Collins, Michael Melvoin, James Burton, Buddy Emmons, Van Dyke Parks,  ... writers : Roll Kempf, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Ian Tyson Wittmark, Sandy Denver, Bob Dylan, Robin Williamson, Michael Sahl... and producers David Anderle, supervisor Jac Holzman, engineer John Haeny, Elektra Sound Records, Los Angeles, cover art by Len Steckler, art direction and cover design by William S. Harvey, ... 1968 this was released?

     Stephen and Judy, please comment, all of you, please comment, tell us more.

     Thrilled you will be singing at the Birchmere here in August of this year! I am off and want to come see you play and sing sooooooooooo !