With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going past them into the impossible.
October 10, 2009 - 1:18 a.m.
It's 12:30 AM and I'm just starting to write my entry. I've been going to sleep by midnight the last week. Things are back to normal.
OK not normal. I'm going to do something I never do, write entries out of order. I have not updated since Wednesday but I'm going to write about Thursday tomorrow morning. I want to write about tonight while it is still fresh in my head.
My gentle readers know that when it comes to music I'm true to the root of the word fan, fanatic. I don't follow musicians I stalk them. No, not in the creepy sense of the word. I don't intrude on their personal lives, at least not uninvited. I just go to lots of shows. Da Vinci's Notebook is the one that dubbed me a stalker. You read about the various bands I stalk but I don't often go into the past. Before there was Red Molly, before there was there were the Kennedys, before there was Da Vinci's Notebook, before there was Moxy Früvous, there was Renaissance. They were the first band I ever stalked. Back in college I had never heard any of their music but Carey had an extra ticket and I went with him to see them at Queens College, where I was going and Carey was teaching. I saw them and was hooked. After that I saw them every time they came to the greater New York area. I saw them at their peak, filling Radio City Music Hall, and I saw them later playing the clubs. I saw them and loved them. We had our little group that was there early at every show, Carey, Jay, the other Jay, Norman, Linda, and me. There was no internet, it was never like Früheads but it was our group. The band stopped touring in the early nineties and we continued to see Annie Haslam, the lead singer, with her band. It must be about 7 years since she last played around here and we had to miss that show. It's been about 10 since I last saw her.
Two of my favorite bands opened for Renaissance or Annie, The Kennedys and disappear fear. I had seen Pete and Maura before but that is where I discovered disappear fear.
So why am I bringing this up? Tonight I saw Renaissance on their reunion tour! The show was the Society for Ethical Culture, a few blocks from my school. This was my birthday present from Carey. There were only two members left of the original band but it was the too most important, Annie, and guitarist Michael Dunford who wrote or arranged most of the songs.
They opening act was forgettable, so lets forget him an move on.
They started the show the way they did in their hay day. Recorded mood music was played as the came on the stage and without introduction they started singing Prologue. One line and the magic was back. Annie had a five octave range, I don't know what it is now but it still beats just about anyone I know. She simply has he greatest voice I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of singers. The only one that could give her a run for her money is Sandy Denny who I never heard live.
Her voice bypasses my ears and goes straight to my heart. I melted when I first heard it 32 years ago and I melted tonight. It isn't just about her voice though. Renaissance was an art rock band with a heavy classical influence. Their music has long instrumental passages. The lead was taken by the keyboards, not the guitar. They had two keyboardists tonight. In their classic Carnegie Hall performance they were joined by a full orchestra. The style is not cool. It is often disparaged. That's just fashion. They were brilliant and they still are. Carey, the other Carey, has musical tastes as akin to mine as anyone but she always made fun of my fondness for art/prog rock. If she were there with me tonight she'd be a convert. There were standing ovations after more than half the songs and they were deserved.
As for the old crew? I saw both Jays an Carey was with me. One Jay told me that Norman was sitting behind him but I never saw him. They were up in the balcony. The only one missing was Linda. Too bad, she was the one I was friendliest with other than Carey.
I wore my Annie Haslam Band shirt from their first tour, 1990. I don't care if that makes me "that guy." I needed to wear it. Back in the day I wore it to a show at the Bottom Line and Annie saw me with it, I was in the front row (did I really need to tell you that). She told me to stand up and model it for everyone. She then asked me my name. When I told her she said, "there's a song children sing in England; oO Gordon the Moron Oo. " Later in the set out of nowhere she started to sing it again. Fond memories.
The songs tonight were all from the earlier part of their career. Most of them were off just two albums, Prologue, and Turn of the Cards. No matter. I loved each and every one of them.
My seeing them for the first time coincided closely with the release of Tolkien's Silmarillion, which I bought the day it was released. To me Annie was always Luthien. Luthien's voice was so magical that she was able to move Mandos, who ruled the halls of the dead with her singing. She was an elf and her love Beren a mortal. She sang to Mandos and Beren was allowed to return to life. I always picture Annie with a silmaril, one of the holy jewels that Beren wrested from Morgoth the enemy and gave to Luthien. The image came to me tonight.
I'm always moved by music, but rarely like this. I'm deciding now if I should see them in Jersey next week. The problem is the money. It's an expensive show. I think I'll call the WFUV member line every day and see if I can get one there. I should have asked earlier, they probably would have given me one.
Now I better get to sleep after my magic evening. Tomorrow I'll write about Thursday and give RUNA the proper attention they deserve. For now listen to Renaissance.
Discover my Superpower - October 15, 2009
Charity Can Begin at Home but it Can't End There - October 13, 2009
One Bitchin' Babe - October 12, 2009
How to Get to Carnegie Hall - October 11, 2009
Reading the Runa - October 11, 2009
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile October 10, 2009
