The Original and Always the Best, Van Morrison, from the Classic Album “Moondance” (1970)
My absolute favorite part of this great song starts at 2:18 ...
When that foghorn blowsYou know I will be coming homeYeah when that foghorn whistle blowsI got to hear it, I don’t have to fear itAnd I want to rock your gypsy soul ...
Those vocals ... chills, every time.
Zac Brown Band, “Free/Into the Mystic” (Live from Southern Ground HQ, year unknown)
The Allman Brothers (Live, 2011)
Oct 26, 1881: Shootout at the O.K. Corral
On October 26, 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. After silver was discovered nearby in 1877, Tombstone quickly grew into one of the richest mining towns in the Southwest. Wyatt Earp, a former Kansas police officer working as a bank security guard, and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil, the town marshal, represented “law and order” in Tombstone, though they also had reputations as being power-hungry and ruthless. The Clantons and McLaurys were cowboys who lived on a ranch outside of town and sidelined as cattle rustlers, thieves and murderers. In October 1881, the struggle between these two groups for control of Tombstone and Cochise County ended in a blaze of gunfire at the OK Corral.
LOL “sidelined as cattle rustlers, thieves, and murderers” ... that’s more of a lifestyle than a sideline gig, I would say.
Tombstone, near the Mexican border, was quite the growing boomtown in 1881:
At its founding, it had a population of just 100, and only two years later, in late 1881, the population was more than 7,000 (excluding Chinese, Mexicans, women, and children), making it the largest boomtown in the American Southwest. Silver mining and its attendant wealth attracted many professionals and merchants, who brought their wives and families. With them came churches and ministers. By 1881 the town boasted fancy restaurants, a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, an opera house, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, along with 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous brothels, all situated among a number of dirty, hardscrabble mines.
One hundred ten saloons and fourteen gambling halls and many brothels ... in a town of 7000!
While all that debauchery was going on with the newfound silver wealth, the law enforcement situation was more than a little hazy (from above link):
Horse rustlers and bandits from the countryside often came to town, and shootings were frequent. In the 1880s, illegal smuggling and theft of cattle, alcohol, and tobacco smuggling across the Mexico–United States border, about 30 miles (50 km) from Tombstone, were common. The Mexican government assessed heavy export taxes on these items, and smugglers earned a handsome profit by stealing them in Mexico and selling them across the border.
James, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879, when the small town was mostly composed of tents as living quarters, a few saloons and other buildings, and the mines. Virgil had been hired as Deputy U.S. Marshal for eastern Pima County, with his offices in Tombstone, only days before his arrival. In June 1881 he was also appointed as Tombstone's town marshal (or police chief).
Though not universally liked by the townspeople, the Earps tended to protect the interests of the town's business owners and residents; even so, Wyatt helped protect Cowboy "Curly Bill" Brocius from being lynched after he accidentally killed Tombstone town marshal Fred White. In contrast, Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan was generally sympathetic to the interests of the rural ranchers and members of the loosely organized outlaw group called the Cochise County Cowboys, or simply the Cowboys. (In that time and region, the term cowboy generally meant an outlaw; legitimate cowmen were instead referred to as cattle herders or ranchers.)
There’s so much more to this story ... read more at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Wikipedia entry.
Learning about just this one story serves as a good introduction to the Wild West and what made it distinctive in American history: boomtowns with their huge and immediate wealth and the hedonistic lifestyle that comes with it, conflicts between ranchers and townfolk, a law-and-order situation that was fluid to say the least complete with gun battles in public, and more.
Were I to design an American History curriculum, this story would be in it: it’s a real event with real people and it illustrates so much about life during that time.
Several movies were made about this historic Wild West shootout, most famously My Darling Clementine and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
A few days ago as I was scrolling through our cable channel listing I happened upon a show I had never heard of, called Homestead Rescue.
Since I was feeling adventurous and had a bit of time to kill, I clicked on it.
I liked it immediately. We watched the full episode and part of another, and then I watched a couple more the next day, and the day after that.
It’s pretty unique. A family of born-and-raised homesteaders — father Marty Raney and his two adult children Matt and Misty — helps families in trouble who have tried to make homesteading work for them but failing in some key way that threatens their physical and emotional health related to crops or livestock, a reliable energy source, drinking water, predator or wildfire problems, etc.
Homesteading means living off the grid and eating only what you kill and grow. Every essential safety and survival skill is provided by you and your family.
That means that bears and wildfires are serious business, existential immediate threats rather than distant theoretical threats as seen by pampered city dwellers who depend on others for every survival need.
In the wild, you actually need firearms and chainsaws and knives to survive.
From the show’s website:
In the last decade, two million Americans have attempted to leave behind civilization in favor of life off-the-grid - but most have failed. For the hundreds of families who decide to become homesteaders, the learning curve is a steep one. On Homestead Rescue, struggling homesteaders across the country are turning expert homesteader Marty Raney - along with his daughter Misty Raney, a farmer, and son Matt Raney, a hunter and fisherman - to teach them the necessary skills to survive the wilderness. The stakes are high, but the Raney family is determined to prepare these families for nature's worst and set them up for success. Each family faces the ultimate decision: will they tough out their first year or pack up and return to civilization?
So the basic premise of the show, obviously, is teaching these people basic survival skills — hunting, farming, power generation, water for drinking and irrigation, keeping your family safe while surrounded by threats 24x7 — thus enabling them to survive and ultimately thrive.
But as I watched it something else became clear — growth as people and within families, and committment to the lifestyle are essential parts of the puzzle, too. Buried emotional family drama is frequently uncovered when — as in one episode in season 2 — a dad decides to move the family from an urban setting to a remote wilderness when kids are young, and those kids may harbor resentment over living someone else’s dream, but they also feel needed and don’t want to let dad down, so they are conflicted and therefore not fully committed to the lifestyle.
Then by learning new skills which permits them to feel more comfortable with the lifestyle, they can let go of the resentment. The more skills you acquire, the better prepared you are to help others, not just with practical life skills, but with emotional support too.
And the problem-solver inside me loves the different ways they hack together water-delivery systems, greenhouses that trap heat during the day and release it at night even in cold climates, and all kinds of other clever things.
I’m not sure if I’m cut out to live that lifestyle because I like my R&R too much, but it’s fascinating to get a glimpse of modern-day people living an 1880s lifestyle and not just making it work, but thriving.
Last week Jay Black of Jay & the Americans passed away at 82.
Here’s “Come A Little Bit Closer” (#3 in 1964).
Incredible vocals. The first Top Ten hit from the legendary songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and it was recorded in a hurry at the end of a recording session — no doubt on the first take, live with no overdubs.
That’s often the secret ingredient behind hit recordings: do it once and do it right, capture the feeling, release it, watch it rise up the charts.
From the same album, “Only in America”. Reached #25 in 1964. Still heard today on any decent Oldies or 1960s radio (in Chicago the best by far is Metv.fm 87.7 — sadly, no streaming service).
Even more amazing vocals on “Cara Mia”, #4 in 1965. Jay Black has that distinctive sound of someone who is not only blessed with a great voice but has had excellent vocal training in opera, theatre or choral singing of some kind — your typical good rock band singer just cannot sing like this and wouldn’t even try.
In 1969 they released an album of their favorite oldies “Sands of Time” which reveals deep 1950s doo-wop and R&B crooner influences, and it’s filled with quality versions of several such tunes, like “This Magic Moment”, a hit for them in 1969 (original by The Drifters”) plus a very good version of “So Much in Love”, a hit originally by The Tymes.
Here’s both versions of “So Much in Love”, just because it’s such a great song.
It also has “Gypsy Woman” written by Curtis Mayfield of The Impressions, plus much more. Fans of the style will want to give the album a try.
Click photo (or here) to go to mlb.com World Series summary
I have to pull for Atlanta here, a team that nobody expected to do anything in the postseason — and with the fewest wins in the regular season of any playoff team — but by executing better they have defeated all comers.
This is the ultimate beauty of tournaments and why I always watch them in any sport — nothing matters but execution.
Reputation doesn’t matter, media attention doesn’t matter, having high-priced free agents and crazy levels of homegrown talent doesn’t matter — only execution matters. I’m speaking about the Dodgers here ... and for me, nothing is sweeter than watching such teams check out early. Buh-bye! Have fun writing those giant checks!
Also, I still haven’t moved on from Houston’s cheating scandal from 2019. Most likely never will.
Game 1 & 2 in Houston the 26th and 27th, travel day the 28th.
Game 3, 4, & 5 in Atlanta the 29th, 30th, 31st, travel day Nov 1st.
Game 6 & 7 in Houston Nov 2nd and 3rd.
All games start 7:00 CT.
My eye is drawn to this style and therefore to Vincent Van Gogh (among others) for the extremely vivid contrast and texture that makes them leap out at you visually.
Post-Impressionism, they call it. I just like it because I like it.
Chet Atkins and Don McLean, “Vincent”
The story behind the writing of “Vincent” ...