Looking Back

Don't look back said Bobby Dylan, but that's what I'm finding myself doing a lot of lately. It started with an offer of a gig for the Martinez Historical Society. When I went to look at the gig site I learned that the Martinez News-Gazette was looking for former staff members to interview for a story for the 150th anniversary edition. I don't go back that far (yet) but I did work for the then-Morning News-Gazette from 1964 to 1966. It was the first newspaper job I got after receiving my bachelor's degree in journalism from San Francisco State.
I went to the News-Gazette office and was interviewed by Lorena Castillo, a reporter and photographer for the paper. We pored over the bound volumes of the N-G for 1964 to 1966 and I rediscovered how stingy newspapers were with bylines in those days. But we did find a few things and I managed to rummage around at home and come up with a photo of myself circa 1965 and a couple of old clips.
That led to recontacting a former editor of the News-Gazette, Bob Neuman, and his former wife, Connie Neuman, who was a reporter for the paper. More recycling, this time of old colleagues.
Meanwhile, at home, Bev and Devin and I have been painting the back bedroom that used to be Shannon's. It has served as a computer room/guest room/catch-all room for the past 5 years or more. The painting project has led to uncovering further geological layers of the life and times of yours truly. Old photos, old artwork, old writing, you name it.
Yesterday the nostalgia got really intense. I started sorting through hundreds of old LPs, many of them record albums that I bought starting right round the time I went to work for the News-Gazette. My initial thought, being thoroughly sick of having so much STUFF, was that I would simply take the records to used record stores and be rid of them for whatever price I could get. But of course that fell by the wayside as soon as I started looking through them.
Among them, for example, is a 1958 Bo Diddley self-titled album on the Chess label that was his first LP. It was purchased by Bev around the time she was attending Stanford U. It's in great shape, too, I hooked up my turntable and played it all. There are also albums by Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Stan Wilson, Elvis Presley, Odetta, the Youngbloods and on and on. Oddly enough, out of all these albums by pop music gods of the '60s, the one I picked to play after I'd listened to Diddley was the New Riders of the Purple Sage. This is partly because a friend, John Gallagher, recently saw them (or the current version of them) at a BMW Motorcyclists convention in Wyoming so our conversation about them was fresh in mind.
But it also is because Jerry Garcia played steel guitar on the album and Jerry could play with the best of the steelers, or could have if he'd stayed with it and forsaken that awful rock'n'roll guitar (joke). Oh, and NRPS was one of my favorite LPs when it came out. I learned to play Portland Women and I Don't Know You on flute because I loved those tunes so much. NRPS is right up there with the Clarence White-era Byrds for country-folk-rock sound, and relistening to this chestnut showed how well it holds up. Now I'm going to have to learn to sing those two songs and maybe more off this album.
Plus now I'm going to have to go back and listen to the old Van Morrison LPs. And the Sir Douglas Quintet LPs. And gawd only knows how many others as I slooooowly work my way through these albums. Of course, the closer I look at them, the fewer I'll want to sell. These are seminal, dude!
Not only LPs, though. When looking through my boxes and trunks full of old writing, I found lots of my own poems. Some are so bad I'd be embarrassed to let anyone else see them, but some are good enough to share, IMHO. And some of the rejects are providing useful fodder for my personal current poetry revival. I'll share a few with you in future posts.
Right now, I've got to get back to sorting through these LPs. Hard work, but somebody's gotta do it.
I'll bet some rap and hip-hop fans will be doing the same thing with their old recordings 30 or 40 years from now, feeling all nostalgic and wondering what their kids and grandkids can possibly enjoy in the music they will be listening to at the time. Oh, well, as we used to say, keep on keepin' on! And don't sell your old albums before checking them out again.