I will preface this with a guilty admission.  Earlier this afternoon I was walking through the kitchen thinking about Tom Brady playing in the Super Bowl yet again, and I blurted out to my dear wife, Carrie, “Patriots 37 Chiefs 27!”

She did not have to say a word.  I caught it after I said it.  Living in Indiana and rooting for Peyton Manning and knowing how many times Tom Brady screwed that up, it only seems natural.  At least we had an off year to marinate before Peyton joined the Broncos.  When he did it was okay.  He just graduated to a more formidable horse.  Colt to Bronco.

So there.  How can I pick against Tom Brady?

First and foremost, I hope it is a competitive game.  Flashbacks of the 49ers plastering the Chargers and the 49ers whipping the Broncos in games gone by are so so disappointing.  Super Bowl XI in Pasadena with the Raiders putting a beat down on Fran Tarkenton’s Vikings in his last Super Bowl was brutal too.  I think Dave Humm, Ken Stabler’s back-up, may have found some time at QB that game.  I am certain he was holding for PATs and field goals.  Amazing what an eight year-old can retain all these years on.

I think I enjoy the Super Bowl now as much as I ever did.  Regardless of what happens, again, I just want us to have a good game.

Of course I will always be thankful that Peyton Manning put on a Colts helmet in 1998.  He led the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl win.  But more than that, Peyton Manning single-handedly made football a much more popular sport in the Hoosier State.

The two Super Bowl Championships the Eli Manning-led New York Giants put together against the evil empire of the New England Patriots will always be a great memory.  I kid you not.  In the second half of one of those games when the Giants needed a game winning drive, I thought Asante Samuel was going to pick off a sideline route that Eli threw.  I was sitting on the ottoman in front of the TV.  I held my breath and when it went through his hands I dropped my head between my knees and when I rose up suddenly I got light headed and wondered if I was going to faint.  I didn’t.  The Giants won and Tom Brady and the Patriots went home unhappy and that was great.

If I live to be 110, the Super Bowl will forever be imprinted on my mind with disappointment.  When you are thirteen and you have watched a guy play quarterback all your life and you got his autograph a few times and you loved his team, as bad as they usually were, and they finally get to the Super Bowl it is like time stood still.  And it has.

Super Bowl XVI between the San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals was a Super Cinderella Bowl like we had seen before and I doubt I ever see again.  Both teams were 6-10 in 1980.  Then in 1981, the Niners were 13-3 and the Bengals were 12-4.  They met in the regular season.  The Niners beat the Bengals in Riverfront in what was their worst game of the season.  They met in a Super Bowl played in a cold weather climate for the first time, as the game was played in the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.  It is gone now.  The last time I saw it driving through there to a Moody Blues concert, they were using the parking lots as drive-in theatres.

But what a season 1981 was.

The Bengals lost.  Going down 20-0 at halftime will do that.  26-21 was the final.  The losing team outgained the offense of the winning team the first time ever in a Super Bowl. Ken Anderson set a new SB completion percentage record. He was 25 of 34 for 300 yards.  The Bengals turned the ball over too many times and ran Pete Johnson one too many times to the right on the goal line when Ken Anderson should have run a bootleg that was working during the season.  Someone on that line was giving something away.  Fred Dean made that last stop look way too easy.

I always thought Kenny was thinking they should have run the bootleg too when I looked at this picture.

It is 2021 not 1982.

What Tom Brady has accomplished for so long is amazing.  Patrick Mahomes is a player too.  And we need a Super Bowl now more than ever.

No team has ever hosted a Super Bowl until Tom Brady decided the part ways with New England and play with the team in host city this year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  The Rams played the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV in the Rose Bowl and I believe that is the closest we ever came before now.

Tampa Bay 37  Kansas City 27  that is the pick here.

Have a great time tomorrow.

And don’t be afraid to speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

We had one last week.

We had one yesterday.

Snow fell on Southern Indiana and it did not disappoint many.

We needed a reminder of something we have seen before.  So many things we are dealing with now these days are seemingly things we are trying desperately to deal with.  Fill in the blank…and you will come up with something.

I remember snow days.  In January of 1978 I remember a snow month!  If you were there, you know of what I speak the rights of.  Doubt I will see another month like that ever again.

These were some of the sights around our environ last week.

The Griswoldmobile snow covered.

The birds around the feeder were quite pleased that we kept them well stocked.

The Sycamore behind the house.

Believe it or not, this was most significant snowfall we have seen in a while.  I enjoyed it.  I have yet to find someone I have spoken to about who did not enjoy it.

In earnest, I think it is just nice for us to see something different.  We have been so bogged down in our senses of self-imposed normalcy.  This was a nice repose from that.

Have a good week.  Yes, we will have Super Bowl speaks later in the week!

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Covid.

Two syllables never meant more in my lifetime.

Over 400, 000 thousand American are dead due in full or in part to Covid.

I have heard the argument that Covid ain’t what killed them!  They had other stuff wrong with them!

Yes, that’s right.  Then they caught Covid and that did the rest.

Ain’t that America for you and me.

I am sick and tired of this.  I am tired of feeling like the only one in the room scared out of his wits.  I have a history of respiratory issues.  How much history?  Well, I got here in March of 1968 and when I made my way into the world the doc took me and did not hand me to my mother.  Breathing aids were needed.  I didn’t cry when I got here.  Imagine that.  Me being obstinate from the start!  I am not laughing now.

While I am not laughing now I will also refrain from ever telling another Dumb Kentuckian joke.  When I moved from Jackson County, Indiana, a state that does not border Kentucky, to Harrison County, a state that does border Kentucky albeit over a river, I noticed a lack of Dumb Kentuckian jokes.  Geography.

Kentucky has about one third of the Covid related deaths that Indiana has suffered.  Bring on the Dumb Hoosier jokes.  We deserve it.

I am sitting here listening to the Bruce Springsteen song “We Take Care of Our Own” and I wonder what planet he was on when he wrote this song!  It sounds great.  So does a good pizza.  Unfortunately the pizza is winning right now.

Never in my life have I felt as pessimistic as I do now.  My tune will no doubt change after I get a vaccination for this Covid nightmare.  I am ready.  Eventually folks in education will be deemed as important, though not essential?  Says who?  It’s the old education political football again.  The kids can’t vote and the educators don’t matter.  They can be replaced in a heartbeat.  But we sure are quick to talk about opening schools!  Some of us have been open for a while now.  But if you think it is business as usual because the doors are open you too would be wrong.  Are we doing the best we can?  Yes.  That is what we do.

I recently told a friend of mine I don’t like my odds.  I had a baby sitter kill over on me when I was five and I have been struck by lightning.  Get the picture?   If I catch the Covid I doubt I would live to tell the story.

But I press onward.  It is what we do.

Jim Stewart, one of my education heroes, said it best so many years ago.  He said education is the most resilient thing ever.  No matter how politicians screw it up, kids inherently want to learn.  Indiana thinks it is going to standardize test students as usual this year.  All I can say is there is a large testing contract that someone just can’t be turning their fiscal backs on.  Colleges are saying they don’t need to see the SAT these days but by golly we are gonna make sure the 7th graders let us know how this pandemic has treated them!!!!  I call that stupid tax.  I am more interested in seeing kids survive and prosper than give them something else to worry about.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Written January 19 and first posted on facebook.

Hello friends. You know those times in your life that make a difference and you know in your heart you will forever keep it to yourself?

Given the day and what will transpire for our country tomorrow, I need to share these words if I plan to sleep tonight.

Many years ago I was coaching football and I had the answers! I had a chance back and forth with a college football coach who had won a National Championship and was a chief Promise Keeper. He was at a coaches clinic and so was I.

I was all high and mighty with my idealism. The Coach told me to cut guys some slack. He told me challenging works better than judging. “Mercy triumphs over judgement.” We need to use the same barometer to measure others as Jesus would measure us. He told me that too. I paraphrase.

Let’s move on. Make tomorrow better. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Neutral, whomever you are you will surely find someone tomorrow in some circumstance or the next day or the next day and you will have a choice to make. Better or worse?

In the end “Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

For the record, my name in a drawer in the Harrison County Court House has a big R next to it. Republican. I don’t apologize for that or what has made me hang my head at my own party. Better days are ahead.

“Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

Don’t talk yourself out of a simple truth. THERE IS A BETTER DAY AHEAD. Be a part of the solution! We need you. Our kids need you.

Nearly thirty years later, a Coach’s speech still motivates when it needs to.

I’m just speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Look at that.  Does it get any better than that!

This is a photo of me and Jackie Gayheart.

Many years ago I stopped in on her just to say hello at her new digs in Ramsey.  Jackie is the mother of my dear friend Marc Gayheart and his precious siblings.

On that visit to see Jackie, we talked of old days and present days.  She left the room.  She came back with a piece of paper.  She knew I was making music.  She knew I was writing and recording songs.  Jackie handed me a piece of paper with what she deemed as song lyrics.  It made me nervous.  I was early in my musical journey.  This piece of paper, while delighted to be handed, was nothing I wanted to be a part of.  How could I get this right?  That is what I asked myself.  And that was that.

This piece of paper was always within arm’s reach in my home office.  I looked at it many times for many years.

One day I looked at it and grabbed my guitar.  And good things happened.  I recorded this song with just me and the guitar at Jeff Carpenter’s Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio in Louisville.

I made this recording for Jackie and her family.  I saw to it that many CDs of this recording were passed on.  And on a Tuesday in May in 2018 at a Harrison County Hymn Sing, I sang this song at Unity Chapel UMC.  I will never forget the look on Jackie’s face as I was singing.  I looked at her and gave a her a nod.  Priceless.  Thankful.  Amen.

The recording I handed off to the family was comprised of the following intro and corresponding lyrics.  Jackie wrote the words and I wrote the tune.

How’s it going group?  This is Danny Johnson and I am coming to you from Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio.  Jeff Carpenter is on the board, a very near and dear friend, and we are going to record a song that Jackie Gayheart handed to me many years ago.  The day she handed it to me I had a silent scream on my face because she asked me to put some music to it and at the time I was not very comfortable doing that.  Things change.  I found this song recently and was delighted that I did and about fifteen minutes later it was complete.  I hope you enjoy it.  Jackie, I hope you enjoy it as well.   

Then I played the tune.

Going Home   (Words by Jackie Gayheart and Music by Danny Johnson)

When we think about the future the present and the past

We know this is fleeting and it’s never going to last

But we know our home in heaven will be ours forevermore

We will be there for eternity upon those peaceful shores

Chorus                                                                                                                                     Going Home…Going Home

We’re just travelling down life’s highway going home

When our life on earth is over and we cease this world to roam

We’re going home…just going home…going home.

We have all have trials and temptations in our life’s every day

Yet we must follow Jesus and walk steady in His way

We look forward to our meeting with our savior by and by

When we’re called up there to rest in our mansion in the sky

Repeat Chorus

Bridge

So walk carefully down this road of life and don’t forget to pray

There will always be a reckoning on that final day

Walk closely to the savior and hold tightly to His hand

Until the day we finally reach that blessed promised land

Repeat Chorus

I dug this CD out tonight and listened to it. I found out today that Jackie passed away on January 13th.  It was the best demo recording I ever made.  That means just me and the guitar and that’s it.  I am proud of this recording.  Without Jackie and her kind eyes and words, it would have never been. I am so blessed.

So today I mourn the loss of my first musical co-writer and loving soul to all.

For the record, thank you Jackie.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Oh my.

I must say I am not too inclined to write much this week.  There just isn’t time to get it all in.  Being an old-school Republican sick with what he is seeing, I doubt my views would matter.

See why I don’t want to write!  This is awful.

On a lighter note, my dear friend Brother Tim Petty’s Alabama Crimson Tide won their 6th National Title under the direction of Head Coach Nick Saban.  That is the same number of titles the Tide won under Coach Bear Bryant.  There is a museum on campus dedicated to Coach Bryant.  I doubt there will be another museum for the current coach.  History is changing a bit by the likes of Youtube and stuff like that.  I see it.  What was once ever so elusive is now in the palm of your hand.  What we thought we would never see again in 1988 is now common place if we want to “look it up”.

On that subject.  Am I the only citizen clamoring for the release of the NBC TV show ED to be released to DVD?

I digress.

Brother Tim’s Coach, Nick Saban, won his sixth National Championship last night.  Thank you for beating Ohio State.

Today the Indiana Hoosiers were placed at #12 in the final AP poll for the…wait for it…sixth time in school history.  Saban wins 6 titles.  IU gets ranked in the final poll for the 6th time.

1945, 1946, 1967, 1979, 1988, and 2020.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Final AP Ranked Indiana Hoooooosiers!!!!   If you have been to a game at Memorial Stadium some of that might resonate.

But guess what?  I am confident the Football Hoosier faithful won’t have to wait for 32 more years to be ranked again.  Get used to it for a while.  With a nod to Bob Dylan, Things Have Changed.

I sure hope more change will follow.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

On July 6, 2014 I wrote the first installment of speaktherights.com.

One of my favorite photos put on this page some time ago.  My Uncle Stanley and myself taken at family reunion in Forest, Mississippi.

Today is January 2, 2021.  I am writing the 600th installment of speaktherights.com.

I have written a half a million words on this space.  I have enjoyed it all.  I have been asked why I do this.  My answer: It is just one of the things I do.  I didn’t plan on doing this.  It turned out that way.

Have we ever been more delighted to see a year go?  2020 will certainly acquire a euphemism or two moving forward in subsequent years.  I’ll just call it a pain.

I am sitting here listening to AMAZON music.  Justin Hayward’s solo album Songwriter released in 1977.  I am listening to this because on this past August 28th I lost my radio station.  Or at least I lost my desire to listen to my radio station.  Robert Becker sold 96.3 WJAA and that was that.  Nothing against the new owners.  But, for me, it was over.  The Cool Bus was never cooler than when Robert Becker walked out.

I still miss 890 WLS The Rock of Chicago.  I have written about that here many times before.  Uncle Lar and Little Tommy doing Animal Stories.  Oh my.  Irony?  Robert Becker is from Chicago.

This past year I saw that Les Grobstein, who was once the WLS Sports Director, was celebrating 50 years in the business.  Albeit he got an early start, 50 years is still 50 years and Les is still going strong in Chicago at WSCR 670 The Score.  Good for him.

A year with no music.  That was 2020.

Justin Hayward at The City Winery in Nashville, October 30, 2019.  This was the last concert my dear wife, Carrie, and I attended.

Seems like a decade ago.  Justin was kind enough to send me a recorded message to pass along to Robert Becker this past Spring, as I conveyed to Justin of Robert’s selling the station and Robert’s devotion to playing a Moody Blues tune even when I wasn’t requesting the song.

I shouldn’t say a year with no music.  Shame on me.  You can look on YouTube and find Tuesday Afternoons with Justin Hayward.  This year he was kind enough to present a video series of acoustic renditions of songs both originally by The Moody Blues or solo material we had never heard outside the record.  It was very nicely done and there are many of them.  Thank you again, Justin.

Post #600.  How can that be?

I have commented on and shared photos from places and people from all over.  I have been blessed.

One of my favorite photos from Tunnel Hill Bridge.

Do we go on with it?  I guess so.  After all, it is one of the things I do.

Speaking the rights…and yes, GO HOOSIERS today against Ole Miss!

Danny Johnson

Well.  I wish I were more computer-interactive savvy.  I guess I’d rather write.

So I wrote a song to get a few thoughts to music and help me make better sense of some things.  Songs help me that way.  I have found meaning in some tunes years later after I have written them.

I recorded this tune on my phone, as I can’t get into Jefferson Carpenter’s studio yet.  This would have been simple in simpler times.  Tried to transfer it to YouTube.  Didn’t work.  Not for me, anyway.

So here are the lyrics to the tune.  Had fun writing it.

INDIANA FOOTBALL 2020 (I Believe)

V1

Well in Bloomington they line up eleven

Just as well as they line up five

You can sense a fear out there

Since Indiana football has come to life

I’ve seen it all my born days

Corso, Mallory and too many since

Empty stadiums in the best of times

I know all too well what its meant

Chorus

I believe in this Indiana Football Team

I believe in the way they play and what they mean

And thank you Coach Allen and your staff for all you’ve done

You know I have believed since day one

V2

So tell me what’s with the likes of ESPN

Running on the bottom of the screen

Why did they have to tell the world

Something so football obscene?

They made it a point day and night for you to know all too well

That the Hoosiers didn’t cross midfield

On the last drive against the precious Buckeyes

Do you think that made someone sleep well?

(Repeat Chorus)

Bridge in conversation style

So this Indiana football team has made some history

Imagine a team ranked number 7 in the AP poll

Playing a bowl game… against a team with a losing record

And you have to look down that same AP poll (if you have time)

All the way down to #22 to find the next ranked team

Playing in a bowl game… against a team with a losing record

In the parlance of Vince Lombardi I think he’d say

“What the hell’s going on out there” (YouTube it.  You’ll laugh.)

Repeat the chorus….fade out.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year’s Eve!

I wish you and yours the best.

Speaking the closing rights of 2020.

Danny Johnson

In earnest, I doubt a network TV graphics department could put together a photo like this in five minutes.  All my props were in one room, save the Liberty Bowl sweatshirt.  Had to run upstairs for it.  And the throws were in a separate room.  Too many memories and so many good times.

I was on the phone with Aunt Barbara in Brandon, Mississippi yesterday.  We go back and forth a great deal during football season.  We hold forth on the Ole Miss Rebels.  She has been a fan for many decades.  So have I.  She and I saw our first Ole Miss game together in 1989 which was about 18 months after her husband, my Uncle Durwood, passed away due to a brain tumor.  And so my affection for Ole Miss football took on new meaning.  It was and has been a significant  glue that has kept Aunt Barbara and myself in touch over the years.  We love to talk football.

We have been fortunate enough to see a few games together.  Games in Jackson in 1989 and 1991 against Arkansas.  In 1996 my dear wife, Carrie, and I went down for the LSU game in Oxford.  In 1999 my son, Jarrett, and I went down for the Georgia game in Oxford.  In 2002, Aunt Barbara came up for the UK game in Lexington.  I went down for the South Carolina game in Oxford in 2003.  That was Eli Manning’s senior year.  In 1994 Aunt Barbara came up here to watch Indiana play Minnesota.  And in 1996 she came up to watch Indiana host Penn State.  Between 2000 and 2013 I may have missed one Ole Miss game when they came up to play Vanderbilt. Dates have not been kind of late. Out of town or at another game. And I can’t leave out the game in Knoxville with Brother Bob Biddle and Davis.  Trying to forget the score.  I can play Rocky Top on guitar by memory. So there.  History is in place.

My parents were born in Mississippi.  My sister was too.  I was “on the way” when my folks moved to Brownstown, Indiana.  I first saw the light of day in Columbus, Indiana on March 18, 1968, the same year the Hoosiers played in the Rose Bowl.  I have a younger brother and he too was born in Indiana.  History is in place.

One of the last two college football stadiums I walked near was in Bloomington on November 23rd last year.  I was there at Memorial Stadium to watch Indiana play with my dear chum Adam Disque.

The other college stadium I was last near was in Oxford, Mississippi on December 26th of last year.  It seems like a lifetime ago.

The Grove was empty that day, just as it has been this football season.

I have a number of relatives who “finished” at Oxford.  I think they still say that in the South.  I hope so.  Oxford is a delightful place.

So is Bloomington, Indiana.  Much like Oxford, located in a town that is anything but a metropolis, Bloomington is easy to negotiate and get to know.

While I can rattle the dates of each of the Ole Miss games I have attended, including two bowl games, off in Tupelo minute, I can’t begin to tell you how many Indiana University Football games I have attended.  Too many to remember. My first memory is 1975.  I know I have mentioned it here before.  IU was playing Utah.  It was tangible proof to me that something from Utah did exist aside from a chunky state form I had seen on a map that Mrs. Anderson pulled down in front of the chalk board in our 1st grade classroom.

I’ve seen every Big Ten team play.  Even the newer kids on the block.  Back in the day when we played fewer games, the non-conference opponents that came calling were sturdier than most we get now.  USC and Marcus Allen came in 1981.  LSU came in 1977. Missouri was a regular for a while.  Kentucky and IU had a nice rivalry once upon a time.  Southern Miss showed in 1995.  My Dad has degrees from both schools.  Before the game he declared, “I can’t loose!”  He was wearing an IU sweatshirt with a USM t-shirt underneath.  He showed it off to all around believe it or not.

Precious memories.  In late October of 1988 I was visiting a friend in the Harrison County Hospital.  I picked up a sports magazine that was published in Indianapolis and was themed around all things sport-worthy in the state.  Joe Sparks, the Indianapolis Indians manager, was on the cover.  An insert photo on the cover featured former Warren Central and then quarterback at Illinois Jeff George.  I was nervously paging through the magazine not paying attention to much until I came across a story about Indiana defeating Kentucky the previous month.  My Mom and Dad and I had season tickets.  I looked at a photo of the crowd.  That’s where we sit, I told myself.

There we are near the top.  My Dad peering through binoculars.  Me in a maroon long-sleeved shirt somewhat rolled up along the forearms.  My Mom?  Well there is a space between Dad and me there.  Mom was on what I call one of her “field trips”.  We always had an aisle seat so she could roam easily.  That is a great aisle seat, as most of the field is to the right.  Now, I won’t mention names, but some of you Jackson County, Indiana-Americans may find someone else you know if you do the “Where’s Waldo” thing close enough.

In 1989 we were a few rows lower on the aisle when Indiana was upset by Purdue.  Lost a bowl game and probably a piece of hardware we don’t need to discuss.  Just when I was over Ken Anderson losing Super Bowl XVI, this came along. There is something to be said about the losses hurting worse than the victories feeling good.  I wish it weren’t that way.  But anyone who has laced up an athletic shoe knows.

Have you noticed?  I don’t want to talk about this Indiana-Ole Miss matchup.

Ohio State got the gold mine and Indiana got the shaft.  The Big Ten changes its rule to placate the blue-bloods and Indiana is #7 in the AP poll playing a team with a losing record.  No offense, Ole Miss. You know I love you.  What is worse, is the next team in the AP poll taking on a team in a bowl game with a losing record is #22 in the AP poll.  It’s unreal.  Indiana University Football just doesn’t compute with some.

The last team I want to see Indiana play is Ole Miss.  I have never rooted against the Rebels a day in my life.  But.  Know this.  On January 1, I hope Clemson beats Ohio State by 40.  Then, on January 2,  I hope Indiana beats Ole Miss by 40.  That is how pathetic all this is.  There is part of me that doesn’t want to watch any of it.

But, in the meantime, lets look back on better days.

With Andrew Evertts and Adam Disque.   Another tradition broken this year.

With Brother Tim and Michelle.

Brother Tim got me to T-Town last year.  I thank you again.

Took a picture of the scoreboard with the Rebs up 10-7.

Good times at Alabama.

I have been fortunate and blessed to have seen games in many stadiums.  Memorial Stadium will always be the college home stadium and it is the best place to watch a game. I have been in the press box, on the sideline, in every section on the east and west banks and in a few end zone sections with this one being the finest.

I am partial to the Block I on the helmets but that is my problem!

Bill Mallory.  I am sure he would enjoy what is happening for the Hoosiers now.

For me, this is what I have missed out on the most this year.  I am so glad that my dear wife, Carrie, enjoys going to football games with me.  In 2019 I attended nine college games and she was at six of them.  Looking forward to 2021.

So here’s to the 2020 Indiana Hoosiers!  Thank you Coach Tom Allen and your staff.  What a difference you have made in Bloomington.  Though the establishment of college football wants to hold their nose as they acknowledge your accomplishments, even your own conference, you have taken the high road and for that I am proud.  I have found that the high road never finds main street and your Indiana Hoosier Football team is better for it.  Hoosier Nation is better for it.  And that is more than enough.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

With complete thanks and regard to Buddy Holly and Don McLean, I feel myself that I may have taken too much liberty with the title of this post.  Disclaimer noted.

Written as I listen to the Velvet Elvis album What In The World produced by Velvet Elvis and my dear friend and partner in music, Jeff Carpenter in 1986.  My last CD was produced by Jefferson and we had some help on a couple tunes from Dan Trisko who is holding the guitar on the Velvet Elvis album cover.  I certainly appreciate all their efforts.

It was an email of all things that made me hang my head recently.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  3 dollars and 99 cents.  That is what AMAZON was wanting from me to acquire the new solo offering by Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney III.

As Andy Taylor would say, “That cut me.”

Now, I know times are tougher than they have ever been in my lifetime.  We’ve seen bad days.  But we weren’t wearing masks and trying to avoid death.  I am delighted that Paul McCartney’s album can be had for a small price.  Imagine how I felt when I looked on my Amazon Music Unlimited account and found this new Paul III waiting for me. 7 dollars and 99 cents a month and I can listen to anything including myself.

On the other hand, I still have a germ or two inside me that can’t accept an album by a Beatle can be acquired for less than 4 bucks. It can’t be.

Some of the greatest musical memories I have, prior to my finding out I can pick up a guitar and make something meaningful come out or my concert going, involve going to record stores as a kid just wading through what was, to me, a cheap art museum to visit.  I’d pick up copies of records that I knew I would never take home.  KISS, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and stuff like that.  In 1978 an album cost 7.99.  A double live or greatest hits album was 14.99.  I have said it before and I will remind you, this was when a concert ticket was 10 bucks instead of 100.  Artists made money making records THEN.

I was listening to The Bay City Rollers and could not get enough Barry Manilow.  The first time I saw the rocky coast of New Hampshire and Maine, I heard a piano opening.  The edgiest thing I had in my collection at 10 was probably Rod Stewart’s Footloose and Fancy Free.  Hot Legs was fun to listen to but the one I wanted to hear was the ballad, of course.  You’re In My Heart is still my favorite Rod Stewart song.

No, I have no grand illusion that I will make money from the music I make.  For fun I looked at my streaming account.  My tunes have been streamed and more rarely downloaded to the tune (sorry) of over 4800 times.  I will see a check when my residuals accrue 20 dollars.  Right now I have earned just over 11 bucks.

I make music because I love to do it and I am smart enough to take advantage of my resources, albeit not without substantial cost, and enjoy the talent the Good Lord has bestowed on me and the others in the room when we plug in and make it happen.

I used to look forward to release day at the record store which used to be Tuesday.  There was a board behind the counter indicating which releases were coming.  This was before, well, you know.  In 1989, long before we knew who farted in Pittsburgh twenty minutes ago,  The Moody Blues were on the release board.  They’d released the album Sur La Mer in 1988 which included their last Top 30 hit I Know You’re Out There Somewhere.  I had played that cassette raw.  I was ready for some new tunes.  The 1989 release?  I was disappointed.  It was a Greatest Hits album with two tunes reworked with proper orchestras under the direction of Anne Dudley.

And so it goes as 2021 is on the horizon.  I say bring it on!

My musical nerve will be tested a bit.  A couple days ago I wrote a song about the plight of the 2020 Indiana Hoosiers football team and the slights they have endured from their own league and the football broadcasting establishment.  As usual, it took about ten minutes.  Spewing out like cheeze whiz from a garden hose, as one wise man once put it.  I may have to present this song in some form before the bowl game on January 2nd.  We’ll see.

Take care of each other and keep on thinking free!  The tunes darn near are.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson