When we were very little, my brother and I had a record entitled Little Songs on Big Subjects. Sung by The Jesters, one of the first groups to record commercial jingles, the tunes, written by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer, emphasized tolerance. Zaret, who died in 2007 just a month shy of 100, told me [...]
Some art, like the 1969 Hopper/Fonda film, Easy Rider, flashes boldly in its moment and ages to insignificance or embarrassment. Some, like the soundtrack of the 1972 reggae film, The Harder They Come, is timeless.
I owned the soundtrack early and played the cassette until it was lost. Almost 35 years later, I bought the CD [...]
Pete Seeger — 1969
Several weeks ago PBS aired Pete Seeger: The Power of Song as part of their American Masters series. If you missed it, make amends and check here for reruns. It’s terrific, but I won’t review it; Variety did that well, noting that Seeger is one of “a few rare people [...]
Everglades City, FL
I stood on the bottom coast of Florida, with the Gulf offshore, mangrove and grassy everglades in every other direction, two hours to Miami, but times away from big town currency and gloss. There are no big boxes, chain motels, or fast food franchises in Everglades City. It doesn’t look like Interstate Everyplace, [...]
In December 1990, when I was working as an investment banker in San Francisco, I wrote and recorded a rap song.
