Sunday, March 25, 2007

desperados waiting for a train....

I have a new old album on... Tom Rush with a reissue of Ladies Love Outlaws and Merrimac County, all on one CD. It helps me remember who I really am, or at least who I thought I was going to be. The delta is a bit unsettling.

I hear this music, and it's July 3, 1975, and I'm on a picnic blanket on the side of a hill out in Lenox, Massachusetts. It's an all day concert at the Lenox Music Inn with Tom Rush, Wendy Waldman, Leon Redbone, Orleans, and others I don't quite remember. I foolishly wore long jeans, and foolishly rolled them up and got a terrible sunburn on my legs. The lemonade was cold and sweet... I was with my first true love - and it could not have been more beautiful a day. A bit tinged with sadness around the edges - when Wendy Waldman sang about "nothing to do but let your wild bird go.." I already knew that love would end someday. But that was still a ways off.

I saw Tom Rush again last summer on the island. He's aged a bit, but is still amazing. Just him this time, indoors in the Old Whaling Church, so no sunburn. This time I was with the true love that lasted.

When I hear this album, I hear both the summers of 1975 and 2006. They're both all good.

No Regrets.

4 comments:

Maureen said...

this may actually be a picture from that concert....

http://www.tomrush.com/photo_74.html

Pete Lyons said...

Nice story Maureen. I have a vague recollection of seeing Tom Rush in 1978-79 but I can't pin it down. The name does transport me back to that time though. I didn't know he still performed. Cool.

George, Group Admin said...

Maureen, you may be one of the longest surviving individuals with merkel cell cancer. We would love to hear from you at the Merkel Cell Cancer discussion group.

We are a group of MCC survivors, made up of patients, family members, and other professionals that have gathered to share our experience with this terrible disease.

George
Group Admin & MCC Survivor

http://groups.google.com/group/merkelcell?lnk=srg&hl=en

Bob Balaban said...

Tom Rush is awesome! I saw him perform at a church in Lexington a couple of years ago, dragged my kids against their will.

He talked about how weird it was that he moved to Wyoming -- "The Unitarians came to my house and burned a question mark on my lawn..."

1975 is not gone forever (yet!)