A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

SEVENTEEN THOUGHTS ABOUT "THE" (PART 4): As regular readers of this blog will recall, I noticed that when iTunes lists songs it does not ignore the words “the”, “an”, or “a” at the beginning of a title (unlike the usual way of alphabetizing). In the past several days, I have been writing about some of the songs on my iTunes list with titles that start with the word “the” (search for “Seventeen Thoughts” below). I have been proceeding in alphabetical order.

Something unexpected happened when it came time to write about the next 3 songs. As it turns out, all of these songs are from a compilation called The Folk Years that I gave to my father.

It was never easy to buy gifts for my Dad. A successful lawyer with the means to buy himself more or less anything he wanted, my father was not particularly interested in material things. He liked reading, photography, and orange creams.

I suppose I had a decent batting average in finding gifts for him, but I hit mostly singles. A Richard Ford novel, a lens for his beloved Minolta, or the aforementioned chocolates.

I hit a home run when I bought him The Folk Years for Father’s Day. It was a somewhat expensive gift, but I was happy I had spent the money when I saw his face as he unwrapped it. About once a week for the next month or so he would call me to marvel over how much the gift meant to him (“It has Pete Seeger singing Guantanamera! Remember when we heard him play at Symphony Hall?”).

That Father’s Day was in June of 2004. Six weeks later, Dad was diagnosed with cancer. Six weeks after that he died.

My takeaway message for all of you: give someone you love something really special. Stretch a little if you have to. You won’t regret it. And you never know when it will turn out to be the last gift you ever buy for that special someone.

The three songs:

10. The Midnight Special by Harry Belafonte. This is a great song. The All Music Guide indicates that there are 270 recorded versions of it. Belafonte’s version is better than the one by Johnny Rivers, who ended up with the big hit in 1965. Belafonte is a fascinating man. Do click on the link and read the wikipedia piece on him.

11. The Mighty Quinn by Ian and Sylvia. Most of you probably know the version by Manfred Mann, which hit #10 in 1968, or the one by Bob Dylan, who wrote the song. But the Ian and Sylvia is the one I know best. It was often playing on the stereo in my family’s apartment in Cambridge when I was young.

12. The Motorcycle Song by Arlo Guthrie. I confess that I hate this song. There are four Arlo Guthrie songs worth listening to: Massachusetts, City of New Orleans (my mother grew up in Kankakee), Coming Into Los Angeles, and, of course, the immortal Alice’s Restaurant.

(This posting has broken most of the informal conventions of this blog. I beg the indulgence of my fellow bloggers and all of you readers. I'll return to pithy observations about pop culture tomorrow.)