1. Today marked my fourteenth day under the influence of this bug -- and it marked one of the first days that I felt like I might be free of the cough, stuffed nose, sore throat, and fatigue.
I had no reservations about driving to CdA for a session at the rehab gym. I dialed up the levels of resistance on the first machine and the incline on the treadmill, still below the pre-bug levels, but I'm getting closer to where I was over two weeks ago.
I had listened to the first several tracks of Chicago III at the Fitness Center in Smelterville on Wednesday and today I finished the album.
Chicago III was released in January of 1971 and I purchased it soon thereafter, either in a store or through the Columbia Record Club.
I loved this double album from the first time I listened to it. I remembered today how when I was a teenager I loved George Gershwin's American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue. I never told any of my friends about listening to George Gershwin privately in my bedroom -- I mean, yes, I enjoyed the music my friends enjoyed -- Cream, Santana, Rod Stewart, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and other great albums -- but I had some other tastes in music that I thought were peculiar that I kept to myself (Al Hirt pops to mind, too!).
My deepest musical satisfaction from about the 8th grade forward came from Gershwin and, in addition, from lab band music. I didn't get to listen to lab band music very often, but at least once or twice I went to Moscow, ID and listened to bands at the new festival that was getting underway, a festival of high school lab bands, the festival that eventually grew into the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
I remember being blown away by the lab bands from Hermiston, OR and Lewiston, ID -- Lewiston's band leader was Eddie Williams, father of Gary Williams who was two years ahead of me at KHS and a terrific drummer.
Listening to Chicago III today, I thought, "Man. This band got to record another double album that didn't have one cut on it composed with commercial success in mind. Is this album an incoherent mess or is it a buffet of a variety of musical styles, a fearless expression of the band's eclectic talents and refusal to be predictable?"
If it's a mess, I love this mess.
If it's a buffet, I'm ready to go back for thirds and fourths.
The album's cuts are all over the place: the jackhammers and cars honking on "Progress" took me back to Gerswin's "American in Paris". Other tracks were non-melodic dives into what I now think of as the fragmented sounds of some 20th century classical music. One track is the recitation of a poem, "When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow" (I remember copying in out in the journal required in Mrs. Faraca's English class). I think I also copied out the romantic lyric, "At the Sunrise". This album rocked and rolled. It featured passages of improvisational jazz as well as some country folk and some Latin American sounds. It had tracks that sounded to me like the epitome of the lab band sound I loved so much in high school.
As it turned out, Chicago III did have two hit singles, "Lowdown" and "Free".
That's not, however, what made this album one of my very favorites.
I loved the album's adventurous explorations, its unconventional incoherence, its scintillating exhibition of the band members' love for classical music, the blues, rock and roll, folk, poetry, jazz, social commentary, romantic love and longing, and what I'll call the lab band sound.
Until my last two workout sessions, I'd all but forgotten about Chicago III.
I hope to never forget about it again.
2. I began to think on Tuesday evening that one of the Sube's headlights might be out and today I confirmed that the left headlight was gone.
I bolted down to Silver Valley Tire and within about twenty minutes, one of the guys replaced the burnt out bulb and restored the Sube to full vision again.
3. After dinner, Tracy and Christy came over to visit Debbie and me and we had a wide ranging discussion of everything from dog training to Christy's book group to the KHS Class of '73 to working in elementary education to putting on Brigadoon in high school to organ transplants to the writing coach program getting underway at Kellogg High School. And more.
Our conversation had about the same amount of variety as Chicago III!
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