9-11, November 22, 1963, Warmth of the Sun, Beach Boys, hope for the future!

This week has flown by… the whole summer has actually.  Summer is exiting and sitting here in the dark tonight I have been remembering the past.  It is true that certain dates on a calendar seem to hint of past history and act as a reminder of times gone by… dates like today’s 9-11.  This date in our time takes us back to an awful tragedy in NYC and for me the death of a history friend.

On this day in time I always remember the death of Ken Morse, a great friend, and a major help in founding our little Old Town Museum.  Other dates that bring to mind history include for us “that are older”... November 22…the day Camelot died in Dallas, with the slaying of JFK.

Interestingly, this date comes to my mind each time I hear the Beach Boys song “Warmth of the Sun”… a song they wrote on November 21, 1963 and last night for some reason I began humming it.

Mike Love who co-wrote it with Brian Wilson said that on learning of JFK’s death the next morning they were saddened and finished this song they were working on… A song that was unlike their others for it was in a key that had never been used on their recordings before, a haunting melody. Love wrote in a blog…”Being the eternal optimist, as hard as that kind of loss is, the one good that comes from it is having had the experience of being in love in the first place. That experience became "The Warmth of the Sun".

Here is a link to the blog...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-love/jfk-warmth-of-the-sun_b_4318208.html

“Warmth of the Sun” has always been my favorite Beach Boy cut and the harmony and its tone reflect a certain sadness and yet a hope for a possible love after loosing someone you love. 

The words “the love of my life, left me one day”… still evokes a melancholy meaning to me. In this case they wrote it as a love that walked away… but now as we are older it denotes someone we loved that died... someone we fear can never be replaced.

Ironically…as sad as it sounded then, and as sad and dark as their feeling were that day, they decided they needed to give it something more uplifting … hope… that God given gift that allows us all to face the future. “But I have the Warmth of the Sun, within me tonight”… Yes they decided they needed to add a warmer feeling…and today to me it denotes a “hope for finding love in the future”.

I first heard this song in the War Memorial sitting in the front row in the middle of a concert they did early in their career, many years ago now… 50 to be exact.  I loved it then, went home and learned to play it on the guitar…it is still my favorite…and as Fall in its dazzling colors and warm days with chilly nights approaches… I guess I am reminded of “The Warmth of the Sun”.

*Listen to the song below… Enjoy! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

A time of American innocence, fun, music...is gone forever!

The past few weeks have certainly been an interesting if not sad time for America.  It started with the death of Annette Funicello who was a true piece of the culture and time that I grew up in.

It was an innocent time of growing up in an America reflected in TV by shows like Mickey Mouse Club, Lawrence Welk, Perry Como and all those family sit-coms like Leave it to Beaver, Dobie Gillis and so many more.  Fun was going to a school hop or a party at the beach in the summer.  Movies were simple stories for teens - love and loss, love found…and all time… music you could dance to.

Annette’s death did seem to haunt us as we sung Beach Boy songs and remembered Frankie Avalon, Fabian and the rest of American Bandstand’s crew.  I can still remember that my brother and friends started, with my dad’s help, a carrier current radio station.  We built it from scratch…I was the Sunday semi-classical hours host...they spun the rock and roll records and went to the hop Saturday nights playing records as what we would call disc jockeys today.

I think quite frankly it was a much more honorable and simple time when music was changing and “Rock and Roll” was at a peak.  Young hopefuls could get their music played on local stations and radio stations could enjoy finding new stars. 

In Syracuse for concerts we went to the old Three Rivers Inn for an inexpensive Saturday show to see some well-known young singer or group in person… hitching a ride with someone’s dad or mom.  Yes we didn’t have our own car!  Some of my best moments were walking home from school talking with friends along the way.  Yes we talked about our day in person - not on the cell phone or via the Internet.

I think many people my age were stunned and felt that that time in America had come to an unfortunate and very sad end.  Annette was dead...and worse yet… of a coma from Multiple Scleroses...a coma she had been in for years.

Obituaries popped up everywhere from the Beach Boys Website, Disney sites, News Sites, Radio, TV everything…why….I think because we wanted secretly to get that part of America and our much simpler and innocent life back!

These savored and simple remembrances came to a screeching halt when two young men bombed the Boston Marathon…

Enjoy this clip of American Bandstand!