My First Kitty - Cindy

When I was about five years old, my family consisted of my parents, my younger brother, and myself.  We lived in San Gabriel, California and that was when I got my first cat.  She was a calico and I named her Cindy after a song by Eddie Fisher that my mother used to sing around the house, "Cindy Oh Cindy".  I distinctly remember the lyrics, "Cindy, oh Cindy, Cindy don't let me down."

Musical Gems - River

River Phoenix died early in the morning of October 31, 1993 at the age of 23.  He died of a heroine overdose in the presence of his sister Rain, brother Joaquin, and girlfriend Samantha Mathis outside of a nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, called the Viper Room.

Natalie Merchant was the lead singer and main songwriter for 10,000 Maniacs.  She left the band in 1993 and released her first solo album, Tigerlily, that same year.  She had three hits from this album, "Carnival", "Wonder", and "Jealousy".  But the best song on the album is called "River," and is a tribute/commentary on the death of River Phoenix, who was a friend.

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/album//Natalie+Merchant/Tigerlily

Musical Gems - Diary

Like my post on Lobo's song, "Don't Expect Me to Be Your Friend," this post is about a song of unrequited love.  This song is by the soft rock group, Bread, and dates from the same year, 1972.  It is called "Diary."

Bread was formed in Los Angeles in 1968 and had a string of hits in the early Seventies.  These included, "It Don't Matter to Me", "If", "Everything I Own", and "Lost Without Your Love."   "Diary" came from their album, Baby I'm-a Want You. It reached number 15 on the pop charts, and number 3 on the easy listening chart.

Musical Gems - Don't Expect Me to Be Your Friend

Music resonates with emotion, and love is one of the strongest emotions.  Last week I did a blog post about Dan Fogelberg's song, "Same Old Lang Syne," which was about an encounter with and old flame.  Today and tomorrow I am posting songs about unrequited love.  That is, love that is not returned by the object of one's affection.

The first is "Don't Expect Me to Be Your Friend", by Lobo.  Lobo is the stage name of Roland Kent LaVoie, who was born in 1943 in Tallahassee, Florida.  He had a string of soft rock \ easy listening hits in the Seventies.  These included, "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" and "I'd Love You to Want Me."  This song and "I'd love You to Want Me," are both from his 1972 album, Of a Simple Man.

Muscial Gems - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The Edmund Fitzgerald was a an iron ore freighter operating between Duluth, Minnesota and various iron works further downstream on the Great Lakes.  She sank in the midst of a winter storm at the eastern end of Lake Superior shortly after 7:10 p.m. on November 10, 1975 with the loss of all hands on board.

Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian singer and songwriter, recorded a song called "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" a month later in December 1975.  The song was released in Agust of 1976.

Musical Gems - Same Old Lang Syne

Dan Fogelberg was a wonderful songwriter.  He had a string of hits in the late seventies and early eighties.  One could argue the the peak of his career was his 1981 album, The Innocent Age.  it contained such hits as, Run for Roses (about the Kentucky Derby), Leader of the Band (written in honor of his muscian father), and Hard to Say.  My favorite, however, is Same Old Lang Syne.