NOW I’M 64 (No longer “When”)

Well, it’s birthday time again. I had an old friend tell me the other day, “You know, you really shouldn’t be so open about how old you are.” To which I replied, “Hey, if I have anything that sets me apart, it’s that I own – I mean totally own –  the age I am, I even write songs about it.”

So this song is, of course, the ultimate baby-boomer song about how really far away “64” felt from our consciousness back then. The idea was that we would all be sitting on our front porches, knitting sweaters, scrimping and saving.

Well, that last part may be still true for many of us, but ain’t too many of us rocking in chairs, though most of us are still rockin.’

This week we lost two giants of the music world, Leonard Cohen, and Leon Russell. Although most of the public know Leonard from “Hallelujah” (a song that is now messed up forever due to the hilarious parody version done by Eric Schwartz), but his songs and impact is so much greater than just that crowd-pleaser.

Same with Leon. I cut my teeth learning the piano parts from Leon’s tunes, and his Oklahoma drawl was, perhaps, second only to Dr. John’s N’awlins crawfish-boil of a voice. So go here and watch me doing this Beatles classic, and totally outing myself as the age everyone already knows me to be. Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.

THIS SUNDAY, at 7:00pm (doors at 6:30pm), I get to do Bill Berry’s long-running Songwriter’s Square show, with two other fine songwriters, Cynthia Brando, and my good friend Skip Heller. Skip is a fixture of Los Angeles blues/swing music with his great band The Hollywood Blues Destroyers. I did the first Songwriter’s Square a few years ago, with Tracy Newman and Richard Goldman. Bill’s show is always a great one, and I look forward to being a part of it again.

It’s at the Lyric Hyperion Theater, 2106 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, 90027. There’s food and drink, and lots of good folk.

 Looking forward to being needed and fed throughout my 64th year. I hope the same for all of you.

I hear there was a Presidential election recently…more on that later.