Caveat: This is a Hillary-free, Bernie-free, Donald-free zone. First one to violate has to ride on the hump. (And if you're of an age to understand that reference, you may like this video.)
Caveat 2: This is a Shameless Self-Promotion diary. Somewhere between vulgar bragging and spam. You're welcome to shamelessly self-promote your own recent projects or accomplishments here, should you wish. Might as well. It’s not as if anyone’s going to listen to your political views in primary season, unless they are their own.
I'm right proud of the new video and the cut it features. Can't really call the track "new," as it was written over a quarter-century ago, rough-cut as a demo for a pitch for the B52's (no bite) and promptly forgotten.
Recently, I had a lot of old multitracks digitized from orphaned formats and came across "Drivin'." It seemed a shame to let it just linger in obscurity, so I hired a couple of musicians who were basically kids when it was cut to flesh it out and am pretty darned pleased with the results.
And speaking of kids, the real gold in the recording is the guitar work of Anders Osborne, maybe 23 at the time and, even then, a real master of the Stratocaster. Give a listen to the parts he basically just tossed off and I think you'll agree.
I finished the mix last week and got working on the video, another mix of original stock and public domain footage culled largely from the Prelinger Archives, Internet Archive and US government sources. I think I was able to capture the spirit of the song and the times.
Which brings us back around to the question of whether this really is merely a politics-free, shameless self-promotion diary. "Drivin'," like a lot of pieces I've written over the years, touches on a sense that has haunted me since I was a young man, the feeling that, through greed for power and wealth, we as Americans and human citizens, have abandoned the fearlessness and wonder that seemed to define us when I was a child. "The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."
As with young people, our young nation made some boneheaded mistakes, causing terrible harm to the innocents in our path. But I can't help feeling as if our youth and naievete, our willingness to dream big and dream crazy, is our greatest strength. I can only hope we haven't surrendered it utterly.
Because that ability to dream big and dream crazy is likely our last, best hope to survive the almost inconceivable challenges ahead.
Anyone up for a drive?
And, for those who don’t see embeds, here’s your direct link to the vid.
One last caveat: This is the first video I've released with a preempting ad up front. My sincere apologies for this crass addition. With my recordings being pirated by Russian rip sites and "information wants to be free" cheapskates within a week of release, I simply don't make any dough from what I do. I'm going with YouTube's full-on ad intrusion option to see if that generates any income. Feel free to hit "Skip Ad" if you wish, but if you suffer through the 15 seconds of detergant or car advert, I'll pocket the thousandths of a cent that generates (or so I'm told; truthfully, I've never seen a dime from YouTube on any in-stream ads on my vids).
