Tag Archive | writing

Elton John

Jan30

“I never knew me a better time, and I guess I never will.”

January 30, 2024

A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated

In the past 50 years there has not been an artist, more than this one, who has provided the soundtrack for our lives. He embodies the concept of be ‘an original’ and has, since the beginning of his long career, gone his own way. In addition to his commercial success, he’s been recognized by his own country and was knighted on January 30, 1998.

The musician: the one, the only, and never imitated, Elton John.

Although he was born Reginald Dwight, he changed his name to Elton John in 1967, after several years in the music industry. From the Infallible Wikipedia:

“In 1967, Dwight answered an advertisement in the British magazine New Musical Express, placed by Ray Williams, then the A&R manager for Liberty Records. At their first meeting, Williams gave Dwight an unopened envelope of lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, who had answered the same ad. Dwight wrote music for the lyrics, and then mailed it to Taupin, beginning a partnership that still continues. When the two first met in 1967, they recorded what would become the first Elton John/Bernie Taupin song: ‘Scarecrow’. Six months later Dwight was going by the name ‘Elton John’ in homage to two members of Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry.”

The list of memorable songs written by the duo – and performed by Elton John – is amazing. From his very first top 40 hit – Your Song – and continuing on with hit after hit through the 1970’s and 1980’s, the songs are memorable and often poignant.

Your Song – easily my favorite of all of his songs

Ironically, Elton did not win a solo Grammy Award until 1995… 24 years after his first nomination. The 1995 award was for Best Male Performance for the Song Can You Feel the Love Tonight? from the Disney hit movie The Lion King. In all, he has been nominated for Grammy’s 33 times and won five times.

He was honored with the Grammy Legend Award in 1999, an honor given to the select few whose lifetime achievements are notable.

As a teenager in the 1970’s you could not turn on the radio without hearing many of Elton John’s songs. One song in particular stands out for me. It was December of 1972 and I was a sophomore in high school. And there was a guy – Ron – who was in my French class. New to my high school, his family had moved to Yakima sometime that fall. We soon became friends, chatting before and after class and we went to several Eisenhower High School basketball games together that December.

But it was one particular Elton John song which, having been released in the US on November 20, I associate with Ron. Crocodile Rock made the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 73. It climbed to #30 by December 18th. Crocodile Rock was Elton John’s first number one hit in the US, staying atop the charts for three consecutive weeks from February 3rd through the 17th in 1973.

To this day, whenever I hear Crocodile Rock I am immediately transported back to December of 1972. Although the song is about an earlier era, for a 15 year old girl garnering male attention for the first time in her life, the song seemed to encapsulate the fun of life: of going to a Friday night basketball game with a guy I liked, talking with him after class and in the library, getting teased by my friends about my new ‘boyfriend,’ and trying -and pretty much failing – to navigate the choppy waters which are teenage romances.

The author (center facing the camera) early fall of 1972 at Eisenhower High school with my friends Cindy, Daphne, and Kathy. This photo appeared on page 8 of the photo essay section of the 1973 annual.

There is a poignancy to the lyrics when one line proclaims “I never knew me a better time, and I guess I never will.” Somehow this song not only laments the slipping away of the rock and roll of the 1950’s and 60’s but speaks to how quickly the teenage years pass us by and how we simply do not appreciate what a unique and special time they are.

Elton John announced in 2018 that he was doing one ‘last’ tour dubbed ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’. From the website:

“These dates mark Elton’s last-ever tour, the end of a half a century on the road for one of pop culture’s most enduring performers. The new stage production will take his fans on a musical and highly visual journey spanning a 50-year career of hits like no one has ever seen before.”

True to his word, it WAS his final tour. But he has written a book – ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road: Memories of My Life on Tour’ – which is scheduled to be released on September 24, 2024.

For more information about Sir Elton, be sure to check out these links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John

https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/farewell-yellow-brick-road-memories-of-my-life-on-tour-set-for-release

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John_singles_discography

Coddiwomple

Jan9

Traveling in a purposeful direction

January 9, 2024

The author’s collection of dictionaries. The Webster’s New World Dictionary, third from the left, was often used for playing ‘Dictionary.’

Back in the early 1980’s I was introduced to a game my hubby and his family loved to play. There was no game board or markers to move around. Instead it required a dictionary, a piece of paper for each player, and a pen. They called the game Dictionary.

A search of the internet reveals, from the Infallible Wikipedia, that the genre is more commonly known by another name: Fictionary. In the years since being introduced to this delightful pastime there have been actual games developed and sold. As noted by the Infallible Wikipedia:

“The board games Balderdash, Dictionary Dabble, Flummoxed, and Weird Wordz are based on Fictionary. In one round of the board game Derivation, players describe or fabricate a word’s etymology; players who provide a correct etymology receive one point for doing so, but their entries are then removed from play, and they lose their chance to receive multiple points by drawing multiple votes from other players. Similarly, in the board game Wise and Otherwise, the Picker randomly chooses a quotation and reads the beginning, and other players try to create realistic endings to the quotation.”

It’s amazing what interesting words one can find when perusing a dictionary.

While these games have been successful, I rather like how we played it: Get a group of people together (the more the better) and then pick one person each round who looks through the dictionary until they find a sufficiently obscure word. They then announce the word to the group and each person has to come up with a definition for that word. The chooser writes down the REAL definition.

Once everyone has written his or her definition, the papers are passed to the person who picked the word and they read each entry aloud, being sure to hide the papers from others. Each participant then decides which might be the real meaning of the word. Those who guess correctly get one point. The chooser gets one point for every incorrect guess.

Now, I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with the title of this week’s Tuesday Newsday, Coddiwomple. Up until the hubby and I were driving home from Yakima on New Year’s Day this year I had never heard of Coddiwomple. But it immediately made me think of playing Dictionary and probably the most favorite word I ever found and used which is ‘gardyloo.’

The hubby had read an article on the term Coddiwomple and shared it with me. What I learned, from author and philosopher David Marlowe – who coined the term – is this:

I was immediately struck by the rhythm of the word and how it seems to fit its definition. Of course the purpose of the word is to help people stop and contemplate what, exactly, they are each trying to accomplish in life.

It was exactly seven years ago today when I wrote my first Tuesday Newsday. At that time I had no idea where I was going with it; only that, via a very decidedly Coddiwomple experience, I had been nudged to take the path of starting a website for ‘someday.’

That ‘someday’ was aimed for that moment, in the murky future, when I would have a book published and be able to share it on my website.

And thus began a Coddiwomple journey toward a vague destination. My first Tuesday Newsday was all about one of my favorite musical artists, Jim Croce.

Of course I screwed it up a bit on that first go round – being unfamiliar with WordPress and how it all worked – and accidently posted it on Wednesday, January 10th instead of that Tuesday, January 9th. So I ended up with TWO articles about Jim Croce a year apart, with the other one on January 11th the following year. (here’s the link to both which I combined into one for ONLY January 10th): https://barbaradevore.com/2017/01/10/jim-croce/)

But that was okay because, well, Jim Croce. One of his best… and so bittersweet.

What I did know after that first post is that in addition to the fiction stories which invade my brain and compel me to write, I had a whole lot of personal stories which came pouring forth.

Some have been funny, some philosophical; they range from recounting early childhood memories to recent impactful events. They cover music, TV, movies, nature, history, geeky musings, and cultural references. War and politics are never included.

But what do any of these ramblings have to do with traveling purposefully toward a vague destination?

For me, no matter what think I chose to do, it is the desire to fully embrace each experience in life. New opportunities frequently present themselves and, as someone who probably has undiagnosed ADD, I am often distracted by such shiny objects.

Yet, as I have matured, I’ve come to understand a universal truth: our most precious commodity is TIME. I’ve become quite protective of my time. And the one thing in life which is elemental to who I am and where I want to spend my time is writing. It’s been that way since I first put a piece of chalk to a chalkboard desk I received as a Christmas present at age three when my family still lived in Clarkston, Washington.

The author, age 3, with her chalk board. Captured with a cell phone camera from the home movies my dad took.

So now I begin year eight of my blog in basically the same way as I did in 2017, traveling in a purposeful manner toward a vague destination. Coddiwomple.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go write Nicole out of the entanglement in which she finds herself. Who will she choose: Nathan, Sam, or ???. And how will her parents react? I’m not sure she has quite embraced Coddiwomple but then again she’s only 21 and has a lifetime ahead of her.

Finally, for those who have read all the way to the bottom, here’s your reward. Gardyloo is, according to Dictionary.com, “a cry formerly used in Scotland to warn pedestrians when slops were about to be thrown from an upstairs window.” Oh those crazy Scots. You’re welcome. Of course if you looked closely at the photos, you already knew the definition.

The links:

David Marlowe’s substack: https://ikiquest.substack.com/p/coddiwomple

The Infallible Wikipedia never lets me down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictionary