37 minutes until 31 years

[shalanna]

And counting.

A little while ago at the grocery store, I was feeling pretty down about this upcoming event. The store PA system, which normally plays a combination of soul and pop in the background, started playing a song that didn't fit into their program. Bobby Darin, "If I Were a Carpenter." I knew it had been sent from the Other Side.

But instead of cheering me, it created a kind of bittersweet moment.

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I think I missed something here... ???

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the obscurity. That post was to introduce the next post, the memorial/reminiscence post. I explain more in my next reply to Sartorias, about how Bobby Darin songs have a special significance in time for me, and how the song implied that things will be okay. . . .

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I love that song--though I prefer the Dylan version.

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Did Dylan cover it? I know the writer of the song, Tim Hardin, also put out a version. But Darin's is the definitive version that got all the airplay. And that was part of the specialness of the moment.

Though the entry was really obscure, wasn't it. . . ?

Bobby Darin became my favorite singer that summer of 1970 or 1971 when he got his own variety show during the summer replacement season (back when the networks were the be-all and end-all), and my dad bought me that 45 one day when we were at Sun Rexall Drugs. (Remember the days of going into a large Rexall-type drugstore and seeing all the stuff, including the rack of singles and albums. . . .) I wore the record out. So it all links together. I was wandering the aisles thinking about today being Daddy's death day anniversary, and had just closed the cell phone after a sort of argument, and there's the song on the PA. Sent from the Other Side to tell me that things are gonna be OK.

Darin died just before Christmas in 1973. Daddy died on this day in 1974. I was a teenager. These two events, losing access to two of the most important people in my life, at least until I get to the Other Side (and I'm not nearly ready to cross over yet), got inextricably linked in my memory. I only got to where I could even listen to Darin again about five years ago. Before that, it would just make me burst into tears.

Have you seen the new "definitive" Dylan bio and the round-up CD set? I put one of the sets on my Christmas list. The Beatles, Dylan, and Peter, Paul, and Mary seem to define an entire era for me. Most of the Dylan songs that I love were covered by someone else, interestingly enough . . . his versions are something special.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Dylan's version was played on the radio a lot here in LA sometime in the late sixties, but I dont' recall when. I just loved it though--still do.

I don't love everything of Dylans, except maybe that and "Blood on the Tracks."

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

Is that the one Johnny Cash and June Carter also cover? My default is to always love the Johnny Cash version of everything.