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𝕋𝕠𝕞 𝕊𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕠𝕝𝕚 𝕚ℙ𝕙𝕠𝕟𝕖 ℙ𝕙𝕠𝕥𝕠-ℂ𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕒𝕘𝕖𝕤…

MY #LIC 6 September 2025

MY #NYC 1 September 2025: Empty streets of SoHo at dusk on a holiday weekend. Tourists departed on their flights home…bridge ‘n’ tunnel revelers back to the boroughs and ‘burbs. Just us natives… peace in the neighborhood… for now.

MY #NYC 1.1 September 2025: “There are no stars in the New York City sky…they’re all on the ground…” Andrew Warhola

𝐌𝐘 #𝐍𝐘𝐂 𝟑𝟎 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: “𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞. 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝…” 𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐀𝐛𝐢 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

𝗠𝗬 #𝗡𝗬𝗖 𝟮𝟵 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱: “𝗛𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴? 𝗛𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼𝘄?” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 26.3 August 2025: “I was staring through a telescope at night at a large light in the sky. Its spinning lights reminded me of you. A star spinning in orbit lighting up the sky…” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 26.2 August 2025: “See myself in the pouring home. See the light, come over now. I see myself in the pouring rain. I watch hope come over me…” Richard Melville Hall

MY #NYC 26.1 August 2025 “Although you think I’m sleeping as you get ready to leave. I can see your shadow packing from underneath my sleeve. And there you go and yes I know, I’ll always be the same. Well thanks for looking in on me – I’m really glad you came…” Ian Robbins Dury

MY #PORTLANDORE July 2025

MY #NYC 6 July 2025: “Well, she was walkin’ down the street. Lookin’ fine as she could be. She’s about a mover….” Douglas Wayne Sahm

MY #NYC 4 July 2025: “Face the face, got to face the face. Face the face, got to face the face. You must have heard the cautionary tales. The dangers hidden on the cul-de-sac trails. From wiser folk who’ve been through it all and the faded name sprayed up on the wall…” Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend

MY #NYC 2 July 2025: ”I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner. I am waiting at the counter… for the man to pour the coffee….” Suzanne Vega

𝐌𝐘 #𝐍𝐘𝐂 𝟑 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: “𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞? 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐲. 𝐀 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞. 𝐓𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐛𝐲. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐲. 𝐑𝐮𝐧 𝐛𝐲, 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. 𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞…” 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧

MY #NYC 1 July 2025: “I don’t look down. From Central Park to Shanty Town. I always hear that crazy sound… So why be bored? Who scared you and why stay here? This is no piece of cake. When I hear that crazy sound…” James Newell Osterberg Jr.

MY #NYC 30 June 2025: “You got my heart… speak electric water…you got my soul…screamin’ and howlin’ freedom, that’s what I want now, give it to me…” James Marshall Hendrix

MY #NYC 29 June 2025: “Gold and rose, the color of the dream I had. Not too long ago, misty blue and the lilac too… never to grow old” James Marshall Hendrix

My #NYC 28 June 2025: “I’m up on the eleventh floor and I’m watching the cruisers below. He’s down on the street, and he’s trying hard to pull sister Flo…” David Robert Jones

MY #NYC 27 June 2025: “Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by… Brother, you don’t know a nicer occupation. Matter of fact, neither do I…” Frank Loesser

MY #NYC 26 June 2025: “Hey now all you sinners, put your lights on… Hey now all you lovers, put your lights on…Because there’s a monster living under my bed, whispering in my ear. There’s an angel with a hand on my head she says I’ve got nothing to fear…” Erik Francis Schrody

MY #NYC 25 June 2025: “When my baby’s walking down the street I see red, I see red, I see red. How could someone wicked walk round free. I see red, I see red, I see red…” Brian Timothy Finn OBE

MY #NYC 24 June 2025: “I wanna run, I wanna ride. I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. Oh, show me a place high on the desert plain where the streets have no name…” Paul David Hewson

MY #NYC 22 June 2025: “Follow, follow the leader na-na-now. New York, New York City na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-now now… Oh, if you wanna dance, hey, work up a sweat. You better-better-better, get yourself, ah-huh, a little romance…” Lewis Allen Reed

MY #NYC 20 June 2025: “Cold fire, you’ve got everything but cold fire. You will be my rest and peace child. I moved up to take a place near you” David Robert Jones

MY #NYC 14 June 2025: “On the surface it’s all superfluous. I tell Valerie, she gets nervous. If I’m selected for selective service, my salary will more than serve us….” Tomaso John

MY #NYC 13 June 2025: In New York concrete jungle where dreams are made of… there’s nothin’ you can’t do… Now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel brand-new…” Shawn Corey Carter

MY #NYC 9 June 2025: “If you want me to stay, I’ll be around today. To be available for you to see. But I am about to go and then you’ll know for me to stay here, I got to be me…” Sylvester Stewart

MY #NYC 1 June 2025: “Lights on…she’s changed her mind. Lights on… look at the time. So, you wanna go home? I’ll give you a ride… you’d rather go it alone, oh really?” Tom Clark

MY #NYC 1.1 June 2025: “There are no easy answers to elongated questions. So try and keep an eye out and be open to suggestions…” John Joseph Lydon

𝐌𝐘 #𝐍𝐘𝐂 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟏 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: “𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐦 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥. 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞. 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞…” 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐠á𝐧 / 𝐓𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 / 𝐍𝐝𝐮𝐠𝐮 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐫

MY #NYC 30.1 May 2025: If I could make a wish, I think I’d pass. Can’t think of anything I need No cigarettes, no sleep, No light, no sound. Nothing to eat, no books to read. Sometimes all I need is the air that I breathe, and to love you.” Mike Hazlewood / Albert Louis Hammond

MY #NYC 30 May 2025: “I stood up to the powers that be… I stood up, ‘cause I needed to see…Voices in my head… can’t you see, it’s a rising tide…” Felice Rosser

𝐌𝐘 #𝐍𝐘𝐂 𝟐𝟕 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: “𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞, 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞…” 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐳𝐢𝐞𝐫, 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐄𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐉𝐫. 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝

MY #NYC 26 May 2025: “I can’t forget the impression you made. You left a hole in the back of my head. I don’t like hiding in this foliage and peat. It’s wet and I’m losing my body heat. The cassette played poptones…” John Joseph Lydon

MY #NYC 25.1 May 2025: “As the trees reached their hands to the heaven and the watchman began to stare, I saw the two rainbows laying across the highway, and I dare not to stare. So can you come out tonight? I got a ride on a satellite. It’s a secret for you I’ve been creating…” William Earl Collins

MY #NYC 25 May 2025: “People were dancin’ like there’s no tomorrow, Meat City Finger lickin’, chicken pickin’ Meat City, shook down U.S.A….” John Winston Lennon

MY #NYC 21 May 2025: “Come on out of your dreams. And wake up from your reverie. Time is here don’t go to sleep. Streets are running on the brink…” Beck Hansen

MY #NYC 20.1 May 2025: “If I could read your mind love, what a tale your thoughts could tell Just like a paperback novel, the kind the drugstore sells. When you reach the part where the heartaches come the hero would be me. Heroes often fail, and you won’t read that book again…” Gordon Meredith Lightfoot

MY #NYC 19.1 May 2025: “I play the street life. Because there’s no place I can go. Street life. It’s the only life I know. Street life. And there’s a thousand cards to play…” Will Jennings / Joe Sample

MY #NYC 19 May 2025: Dis Is Da Drum…. Herbert Jeffrey Hancock

MY #NYC 10.1 May 2025: “Oh, I just want to hear girls talk. I got a loaded imagination being fired by girls talk. But I can’t say the words you want to hear. I suppose you’re going to have to play it by ear. Right here and now…” Declan McManus

MY #NYC 10.2 May 2025: “She makes me feel like I’m the only man for her in this world. Now maybe it’s the way that my girl walk… maybe it’s the way that my girl talk. Oh yes she makes me feel like I’m a king. That’s the kind of love that my girl bring. Oh yeah-e, yeah-e, yeah-e…” Gregory Isaacs

MY #NYC 9 May 2025: “You’re the kind of person that I’ve been dreaming of. You’re the kind of person that I always wanted to love. And when I first seen you walk right through that bar door. And I seen those suit and tie johns buy you one drink, and then buy you some more I had a… I knew you had that crazy feeling” Lewis Allen Reed

MY #NYC 8 May 2025 “Whenever dark has fallen you know the spirit of the party starts to come alive. Until the day is dawning you can throw out all the blues and hit the city lights. ‘Cause there’s music in the air and lots of lovin’ everywhere, so gimme the night…” George Benson

MY #NYC 4 May 2025: “Make no mistake about it. Things ain’t what they seem. I’m gonna scream and shout it. This is just a dream…” Keith Richards

MY #NYC 3 May 2025: Let’s see action. Let’s see people. Let’s see freedom. Let’s see who cares. Take me with you. Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend

MY #NYC 1.4 May 2025: “Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear. Why on earth are you there? When you’re everywhere. Come and get your share…” John Winston Lennon

MY #NYC 1.3 May 2025: “Live your life, and just be yourself. ‘Cause you’re somebody special, somebody loves your life….” will.i.am / Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán

MY #NYC 1.2 May 2025: “I hear voices, I see people. I hear voices of many people… Sayin’ everything is everything…” Donny Edward Hathaway

MY #NYC 1.1 May 2025: “You can understand everything’s to share. Let your spirit dance brothers everywhere. Let your head be free, turn the wisdom key, find it naturally – see you’re lucky to be. Dig this sound It¨ªs been round and round and round.” Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán

𝐌𝐘 #𝐍𝐘𝐂 𝟐𝟗.𝟐 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: “𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲. 𝐒𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐮 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐲. 𝐃𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧. 𝐂𝐚 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭… 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞.. 𝐒𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰…𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 ‘𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰…” 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬

MY #NYC 29.1 April 2025: “New York… like a scene from all those movies. But you’re real enough to me. There’s a heart… that lives in New York…” Benny Gallagher / Graham Lyle

MY #NYC 29 April 2025: “Dance little sister, dance with your missed her, saw that I kissed her, heard that he dissed her, she’s a fighter, cigarette lighter, lighter getting lighter, mystery writer…” Tomaso John

MY #NYC 25 APRIL 2025: “Life is pleasure life is pain, homes are lost to eminent domain…walk down the aisle be my bride…stick your tongue out open wide…” Tomaso John

MY #NYC 24 APRIL 2025: “Pretty woman, won’t you pardon me? Pretty woman, I couldn’t help but see. Pretty woman, you look lovely as can be. Are you lonely just like me? Rawwwwr….” Roy Kelton Orbison

MY #NYC 22.1 APRIL 2025: “I saw her, yeah I saw her with her black tongue tied ‘round the roses. Fist pounding on a vending machine. Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger. Hey, my sun eyed girl…” Beck David Hansen

MY #NYC 22 APRIL 2025 “Shoulda took a picture. Something I could keep. Buy a little frame. Something cheap. For you…” David Robert Jones

MY #NYC 20 April 2025: “Don’t these city lights, light these streets to life? All these crazy nights bring us together…We’re supposed to be a land of liberty and those city lights to blaze forever…” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 19 April 2025: “I was alone and content in my world. Dancing on air. You sent to me a message that said ‘I like your style’…” Patricia Lee Smith

MY #NYC 18 April 2025: “I see us in the park strolling the summer days of imaginings in my head. And words from our hearts told only to the winds, felt even without being said…” Stevland Hardaway Morris

MY #NYC 17 April 2025 “There she was just a-walkin’ down the street, singin’ ‘Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do’. Snappin’ her fingers and shufflin’ her feet, singin’ ‘Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do’. She looked good (Looked good). She looked fine (Looked fine). She looked good, she looked fine and I nearly lost my mind…” Ellie Greenwich / Jeff Barry

MY #NYC 15 April 2025: “I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways…”Siedah Garrett / Glen Ballard

MY #NYC 15 April 2025: “Daily records. Just want to be making daily records. Try to avoid the bad news in the letters…” Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend

MY #NYC 10 April 2025: “But today there is no day or night. Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray…” Cynthia Weil / Barry Mann

MY #NYC 7 April 2025: “Lemon, see-through in the sunlight. She wore lemon but never in the daylight…” Paul David Hewson

MY #NYC 30 March 2025: “You see I met a devil named Buena, Buena and since I met the devil I ain’t been the same…” Mark Sandman

MY #NYC 29.1 March 2025: Cost of an iced coffee with a shot of expresso and a designer chocolate chip cookie downtown NYC $14.25 (tip included). Watching pretty girls pass me by: priceless….

MY #NYC 30 March 2025: I got nothing to eat in this old house. I gotta go out and catch a mouse. I can’t be wrong so I gotta be right. Your skills are highly specialized. But still that girl can magnetize. You sense the hunger in her eyes… strike or be stricken. Eat or be eaten…” James Newell Osterberg Jr.

MY #NYC 27 March 2025: “I’ll say goodbye to all my sorrow. And by tomorrow I’ll be on my way, I guess the Lord must be in New York City. Ain’t it wonderful to be where I’ve always wanted to be? I’ll breathe free, here in New York City…” Harry Edward Nilsson III

MY #NYC 26 March 2025: “I’m a silhouette not a soldier. I’m a dilletante who pulled one over the leaders and Japanese cedars who cede their power to the bottom feeders…” Tomaso John

MY #NYC 22 March 2025: “In New York freedom looks like too many choices. In New York I found a friend to drown out the other voices. Voices on the cell phone. Voices from home. Voices of the hard sell. Voices down the stairwell in New York. Just got a place in New York…” Paul David Hewson

MY #NYC 20 March 2025: “You’ve heard of Radio Ethiopia? Well, I’m Radio Brooklyn!” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 19 March 2025 ”All the majesty of a city landscape. All the soaring days in our lives. All the concrete dreams in my mind’s eye. All the joy I see thru’ these architect’s eyes…” David Robert Jones

MY #NYC 17 March 2025: “They call you ecstasy. Nothing ever sticks to you. Not velcro, not scotch tape. Not my arms dipped in glue.” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 16 March 2025: “I’ll be your mirror, reflect what you are, in case you don’t know. I’ll be the wind, the rain and the sunset, the light on your door to show that you’re home…” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 13 2025: “Time after time those fanatical minds try to rule all the world. Telling us all its them who’s in charge of it all. I’ve got a tricked out magic stick that will make them all fall. We’ve got the power now that’s where it belongs…” Wayne Michael Coyne

MY #NYC 11 March 2025: “Ah, it’s a happy time inside my mind. When a melody does find a rhyme says to me I’m comin’ home to stay, oh Lord, home to stay…” Timothy Charles Buckley

MY #NYC 10 March 2025: “Standing in the shadow of another man. Lonely as the streets pass me by. Life ain’t under pressure ’cause I got a plan, starin’ at myself in the eye…” Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta

MY #NYC 8 March 2025: “When that fat old sun in the sky is falling…summer evening birds are calling… and if you see, don’t make a sound, pick your feet up off the ground…” David Jon Gilmour

My #NYC 8 March 2025: “Well, I’m an animal, something like a cannibal. I’m very flammable and partially programmable. Centuries of overuse, now I wear it nice and loose…” Anthony Kiedis

MY #NYC 7 March 2025: “While Mona Lisas and mad hatters… sons of bankers, sons of lawyers…turn around and say good morning to the night…for unless they see the sky…but they can’t and that is why… they know not if it’s dark outside or light…” Bernard John Taupin

MY #NYC 1 March 2025: “When your imagination has too much to say… when the chill of the night meets the sweat of the day….and you have trouble understanding what other people have to say, you’d better hang on to your emotions…” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 27.2 February 2025: “I don’t know where the sunbeams end, and the star lights begin. It’s all a mystery. And I don’t know how a man decides, what’s right for his own life. It’s all a mystery” Wayne Michael Coyne

MY #NYC 25.3 February 2025 “I know an angel on the east side of Heaven who lives in a first story room. We meet on a rooftop and dream in the dark, when the lights of New York are in bloom. All through the daytime it’s the same old Manhattan, but evening again sets me free…” John Scott Totter / Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby

MY #NYC 25.1.2025 “They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away… and just the pure at heart will walk her righteous streets someday…” Stevland Hardaway Morris

MY #NYC 25.2.2025 “As around the sun the earth knows she’s revolving… As now can’t reveal the mystery of tomorrow… until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky… until the ocean covers every mountain high…until we dream of life and life becomes a dream…” Stevland Hardaway Morris

MY #NYC 21.2.2025 “And it’s just like the ocean under the moon…it’s the same as the emotion that I get from you…you got the kind of lovin’ that can be so smooth… gimme your heart, make it real…or else forget about it…” Robert Kelly Thomas / Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán

MY #NYC 24.1.2025 “There was China in her eyes, in a silk and velvet disguise. She was moving’ like a lady, looking’ like a dragon princess…” Paul Lorin Kantner

MY NYC 18 February 2025: 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃 𝐂. 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒 & 𝟏𝟒𝟒 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐌 𝐌𝐚𝐜 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐧 / 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭, 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐭 𝐕𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐬; 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 / 𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐬, 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐓𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫 / 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐭 𝐕𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬; 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐂 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝟔-𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐬 & 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬.

MY #NYC 16 February 2025: “Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns. Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around. Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, girl…” Timothy Gilbert, John Carter

MY #NYC 15 February 2025 “They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom, for trying to change the system from within. I’m coming now to reward them. First we take Manhattan… then we take Berlin…” Leonard Norman Cohen

MY #NYC 14 February 2025 “Hey now, you got me by the tongue. I feel like, there’s nowhere I belong. And they’re working it pretty hard. And they’re selling it by the yard. But it’s more than I can afford…” David Gray

𝗠𝗬 #𝗡𝗬𝗖 𝟰 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 “𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲…” 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗛𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗼𝗻

MY #NYC 3 February 2025 “And the sign said, “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, in tenement halls… and whispered in the sounds of silence…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 30 January 2025 “And I can’t look down, from Central Park to Shanty Town. I always heard that crazy sound, from New York to Shanty Town… James Osterberg

MY #NYC 28 January 2025 “New York City is a friendly old town, from Washington Heights to Harlem on down…there’s a-mighty many people millin’ all around…. Robert Allen Zimmerman

MY #NYC 27 January 2025 “In a catacomb or cave of endless drawings… prehistoric or religious… your accomplishments prodigious… seeking out the perfect tone…” Lewis Allen Reed

MY #NYC 18 January 2025: “I’m doing fine up here, on cloud nine…listen, one more time…” Norman Whitfield / Barry Strong

MY #NYC 16 January 2025 “Sons of the silent age stand on platforms blank looks and notebooks, sit in back rows of city limits… Sons of the silent age don’t walk, they just glide in and out of life…” David Robert Jones

MY #NYC 14 January 2025 “The traffic on Canal Street’s so noisy it’s a shock. And someone’s shooting fireworks or a gun on the next block. And I wanna hooky wooky with you…” Lewis Allen Reed

MY #NYC 9 January 2025 “Shoulda took a picture. Something I could keep. Buy a little frame. Something cheap. For you. Everyone says hi…” David Robert Jones

MY #NYC 6 January 2025 “There is no political solution to our troubled evolution…we are spirits in the material world, are spirits in the material world…” Gordon Matthew Sumner

MY #NYC 6 January 2025 “Sometimes in winter… forgotten memories remember you behind the trees…” Steve Katz

MY #NYC 2 January 2025: “Did you ever take a look to see whose left around? Everyone I thought was cool is six feet underground! I’m still alive and well, still alive and well… Every now and then I know it’s kinda hard to tell… but I’m still alive and well…” John Dawson Winter lll

𝑰𝑻 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑨 𝑽𝑬𝑹𝒀 𝑬𝑳𝑬𝑪𝑻𝑹𝑶-𝑫𝑼𝑩 𝒀𝑬𝑨𝑹… 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑺𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒓𝒐 𝑫𝒖𝒃 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕… … 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒖𝒎 ‘𝒏’ 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒌 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏’ 𝒊𝒏 2025…. 𝑫𝒊𝒈 𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒋𝒂𝒓𝒐 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑨𝑻 𝑮𝑹𝑬𝑬𝑵 𝑲𝑰𝑳𝑳 𝑺𝑬𝑺𝑺𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺 / 𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 2024 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝑺𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒅𝒊, 𝑫𝒊𝒓𝒌 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒏 𝑫𝒂𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝑲𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆, 𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/A3wArLVm5VA?si=ZQajcvavplQHzagZ

MY NYC 30 December 2024: “Time, he’s waiting in the wings. He speaks of senseless things. His script is you and me, boy. Time, he flexes like a whore. Falls wanking to the floor. His trick is you and me, boy…” David Robert Jones

MY NYC 24 December 2024: “Outside my window is a tree. There only for me. And it stands in the grey of the city…” Gail Collins / Felix Pappalardi

MY NYC 10 December 2024: “Well I got a foggy notion, do it again. Over by the corner, do it again. I got my calamine lotion baby, do it again…” Sterling Morrison, Doug Yule, Maureen Tucker & Hy Weiss

MY #NYC 8 December 2024: “We understand your paranoia. But we don’t wanna play your game You think you’re cool and know what you are doing… 666 is your name…” John Winston Lennon

’74 @ 50! Rod Stewart / Faces Live! Coast to Coast Overture and Beginners. Bassist Tetsu Yamauchi /Rod Stewart / Smiler. Bassists Spike Heatley, Willie Weeks, Ronnie Wood / Ronnie Wood / I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Bassists Willie Weeks, Pete Sears, with Mick Taylor / Rolling Stones / It’s Only Rock and Roll. Bassists Bill Wyman, Willie Weeks, with Keith Richards, Mick Taylor / Bill Wyman / Monkey Grip. Bassist Wiliam George Perks RAF O.H.M.S.

MY #NYC 21 November 2024: “Imagine how my daddy felt, in your jet black suspender belt. Seventeen years old. He’s touching sixty-four. You got legs right up to your neck. You’re making me a physical wreck. I’m talking to you…hot legs…” Sir Roderick David Stewart CBE

𝑴𝒀 #𝑵𝒀𝑪 20 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 2024: 𝑨𝒎 𝑰 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏’ 𝒀𝒐𝒖… 𝑨𝒍𝒊 𝑩𝒂𝒃𝒂 & 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒊 𝑳𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝑳𝒂 𝑫𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝑵𝒀𝑪 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑪. 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 & 𝑴𝒂𝒄 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒏!

MY #NYC 18 November 2024 “A race of angels bound with one another. A dish of dollars laid out for all to see. A tower room at Eden Rock… his golf at noon for free… Brooklyn owes the charmer under me..” Walter Carl Becker / Donald Jay Fagan

MY #NYC 17 November 2024: “I used to think maybe you loved me now baby I’m sure. And I just can’t wait till the day when you knock on my door. Now every time I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down. ‘Cause I just can’t wait till you write me you’re coming around. I’m walking on sunshine….” Kimberly Rew

MY #NYC 11 November 2024 “He was the king of trees, keeper of the leaves. A deep green god of young… love stained memory.” Steven Demetre Georgiou

MY #NYC 10 November 2024 “…I’m just a raindrop in a bucket. A coin dropped in a slot. I am an empty house on Weed Street. Across the road from a vacant lot… You know life is what you make of it… so beautiful or so what…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 9 November 2024 “…half of the time we’re gone, but we don’t know where and we don’t know why….the only living boy in New York…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 6 November 2024: “Tigers don’t growl much unless they’re bored. Or unless attempting to tackle the jungle, Lord… whose face tigers never see… but who still hands out their stripes judiciously…” Sananda Maitreya

MY #NYC 4 November 2024: “If I could live to be several hundred, I could take a walk and really wander. All my ghosts on every sea, in every land…” Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV

MY #NYC 3 November 2024: “I’m a road runner, baby. Can’t stay in one place too long. I’m a road runner, baby. You might look at me and I’ll be gone…” Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Edward Jr. Holland

MY #NYC 1 November 2024: “There’s a downtown fairy singing out “Proud Mary” as she cruises Christopher Street. And some Southern Queen is acting loud and mean where the docks and the badlands meet… this Halloween is something to be sure…” Lewis Allan Reed

MY #NYC 30 October 2024 “November and more, as I wait for the score, they’re telling me forgiveness is the key to every door…” Phil Lesh / Bobby Peterson

MY #NYC 24 October 2024 “Smiling faces sometimes… they don’t tell the truth. Smiling faces, tell lies and I got proof…” Norman Whitfield

MY #NYC 22 October 2024 “Now I own the key to the door, the kingdom of heaven lies inside…I love visions of you…” Jah Wobble

MY NYC 10.10.24: 144 Live at Silvana Harlem “It’s about that time…”

MY NYC 4 October 2024 “Life’s a game of give and take. Early in the morning get your concentration
on your meditation to take the right direction…” Carlos Santana / Michael Shrieve

MY #NYC 26 September 2024 “I’ve been talking to myself…because I’m a little bit crazy…” Stu Richards / Magic Forest Live at AH Presents Otto’s Shrunken Head NYC

MY #NYC 24 September 2024 “My friends are so alarming, my lover’s never charming… life’s just a cocktail party on the street…” Sir Michale Phillip Jagger / Keith Richards

MY NYC 23 September 2024 “In my sensations, I believe that I was born with the things that I know. I want to talk like I read…” David Byrne

MY NYC 22 September 2024 “Something in the night. Something in the day. There’s slaughter in the air protest on the wind… Someone else inside me…someone could get skinned. Someone fetch a priest, you can’t say no to the Beauty and The Beast…” David Robert Jones

MY NYC 19 September 2024 “Only renting. Only subletting. Fences mending. Just pretending. Reality bending. Signal sending. Patent pending. Just inventing. Let’s go ‘round the bend. Get in trouble again. Make a commotion. Drink a love potion. Sweet ’til the bitter end…” John Doe / Exene Cervenka

MY N.Y.C. 16 September 2024 “I am a tree, I show my age when I don’t cry. I have the leaf that will fall off when wind blows by…I am a tree fruitless and free…” Robert Pollard

MY #NYC 15 September 2024 “Speedy Marie, ahead of the now. She’s better built that’s how. She’s built for speed, Speedy Marie…” Frank Black

MY NJ/NYC 15 September 2024 “One day you turn around and it’s summer. Next day you turn around and it’s fall…as a man who has always had the wand’ring ways, now I’m reaching back for yesterdays. ‘Til a long-forgotten love appears and I find that I’m sighing softly as I near September, the warm September of my years…” Sammy Cahn as sung by Francis Albert Sinatra

MY NYC 13 September 2024 “I wanna be somebody’s Chelsea, somebody’s world. Somebody’s day and night, one and only girl. A part of a love story that never has an end. You know that’s what every woman wants to be somebody’s Chelsea…” Reba McEntire

MY #NYC 13 September 2024 “The streets of New York, a maze made of iron and stone. A labyrinth complete, with edges that cut through the bone.” Willie Nile

MY NYC 13 September 2024 “Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting?” Vernon Duke

MY #NYC 8 September 2024: “We’re so young and pretty, we’re so young and clean. So many things that we have never seen. Let’s move from Ohio, sell this dam’ old store. Big Apple dreamin’ on a wooden floor…” Vincent Furnier

MY NYC 8 September 2024: “Safe in my garden, an ancient flower blooms and the scent from its nature slowly squares my room…” John Edmund Andrew Phillips

MY #NYC 5 September 2024 “Can we fix our nation’s broken heart? Are we brave enough to try? Can we fix our nation’s broken heart and leave a better world behind?” Stevland Hardaway Morris

MY #NYC 4 September 2024: Groovin’ on the 2 & 4 in 4/4! Diggin’ FAITH NYC Live at Silvana Harlem NYC….

MY NYC 3 September 2024 “I wanna run, I want to hide I wanna tear down the walls that hold me inside… I wanna reach out and touch the flame where the streets have no name… Paul David Hewson

MY #NYC 2 September 2024 “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem. A red rose up in Spanish Harlem. It is the special one, it’s never seen the sun. It only comes out when the moon is on the run. And all the stars are gleaming. It’s growing in the street right up through the concrete. But soft and sweet and dreaming…” Ben E. King / Jerry Leiber

MY #NYC 30 August 2024 “Through a fault of our designing we are lost among the windings of these metal ways…” Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno

MY #NYC 29 August 2024 “There ain’t no reason to tell no lie when you’re young and you’ve got a lot of pie… now I slink around like a killer…the things they say are just a lot of filler…” James Newell Osterberg Jr.

My NYC 27 August 2024 “Nothing is planned by the sea and the sand…” Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend

MY #NYC 26 August 2024 “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds…” Marcus Garvey / Robert Nesta Marley

MY #NYC 26 August 2024 “Want some whiskey in your water? Sugar in your tea? What’s all these crazy questions they’re askin’ me? This is the craziest party that could ever be… don’t turn on the lights… ’cause I don’t wanna see! Mama told me not to come! She said ‘that ain’t the way to have fun… son.’ Uh-huh!” Randy Newman

MY #NYC 2018 “The return of the Thin White Duke throwing darts in lovers’ eyes…” David Bowie Is Here Bleecker/Lafayette St. Subway Exhibit

MY NYC 25 August 2024 “And when I see the sign that points one way… the lot we used to pass by every day. Just walk away, Renée you won’t see me follow you back home… the empty sidewalks on my block are not the same, you’re not to blame… just walk away…” Brown / Calilli / Sansone

MY NYC 22 August 2024 lORRAINE lECKIE lIVE @ ilon Art Gallery hARLEM nYC Ilon Art Gallery

MY #NYC 22 August 2024 “No, it ain’t judgement day. No, it ain’t Armageddon… it’s just the apple stretching and yawning, just morning. New York City putting it’s feet on the floor…” Grace Jones

MY #NYC 20 August 2024 “Everyone’s feeling pretty, it’s hotter than July… though the world’s full of problems, they couldn’t touch us even if they tried…from the park, I hear rhythms, Marley’s hot on the box… tonight, there will be a party…on the corner at the end of the block” Stevland Hardaway Morris

MY #NYC 14 August 2024: “In the heart of Harlem, a renaissance blooms. A symphony of voices, in countless rooms. Jazz and blues, a soulful sound where creativity and spirit abound, Langston’s dreams deferred, Hughes’ rivers flow, in every word, a people’s echo…” (author unknown)

MY #NYC 12 August 2024 “The heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground. There’s no room no space to rent in this town. It’s a beautiful day. Sky falls, you feel like. It’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away…” Paul Hewson

MY NYC 10 August 2024 “I play the street life because there’s no place I can’t go. Street life, it’s the only life I know. Street life, you can run away from time. Street life, for a nickel, for a dime…” Wilber Jennings

MY NYC August 2024 Random images…

MY NYC 8 August 2024 “Flowers never bend with the rainfall…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 6 August 2024 “I’ve just seen a face, I can’t forget the time or place where we just met…” James Paul McCartney

MY NYC 4 August 2024 “If you want me to stay, I’ll be around today, to be available for you to see. But I am about to go and then you’ll know, for me to stay here, I got to be me…” Sylvester Stewart

MY #NYC 20 July 2024 “Gone are the days, of the seek and the find. All in the name of easy come, easy go merry go round the mind. Step right up, catch it while you can, alligator hugger and the candy man…” Cris Jacobs

MY #NYC 19 July 2024 “All the young girls love Alice…tender young Alice they say…if I give you my number, will you promise to call… wait ‘till my husband’s away…” Bernie Taupin

MY #NYC 18 July 2024 “Walk right out to the four-line track, there’s a camera rolling on her back… I sense a rhythm humming in a frenzy….girls on film, two minutes later…” Lebon / Taylor / Taylor / Taylor / Rhodes

MY #NYC 14 July 2024 “I got the time. I got my feet. Let’s go hit the street. High in the city. I got my mace. You got your knife. You gotta protect your own life. I wanna stay alive in the city…” Lou Reed

12 July 2024 MY #NYC “And undulating always, like the tide, the devil’s bride is calling all toward her skirt. And in the loving folds there we will hide inside from any would-be sneak attack until it’s safe to journey back…” Robert Pollard

MY #NYC 3 July 2024 “I have a positive hot gift, want one? A scoffer’s clutch karma issue, a nursery whip for men who skip. Want one?” Robert Pollard

28 June 2024 MY #NYC “With the sinking of the sun I’ve come to greet you. Clean your hands and go to sleep, confess the dreams of good and bad men all around…” Robert Pollard

MY #NYC 26 June 2024 “A live wire, barely a beginner, but just watch that lady go. She’s on fire, ’cause dancin’ gets her higher than anything else she knows…” David Lee Roth

17 June 2024 MY NYC “Everywhere I go people want to know, who I am. So, I tell them. I am the Serene King in a half-asleep dream, waltz across the battlefield…” Robert Pollard

4 June ’24 MY NYC “And I’m sitting on a bench in Coney Island…wondering, ‘where did my baby go?’ The fast times, the bright lights, the merry-go…” Taylor Swift / The National

31 May 2024 MY NYC “Up Madison, down Park… each time I turn a corner, I walk a little faster, pretending life is sweet, ‘cause love’s around the corner…. I walk a little faster…” Tony Bennett

30 May 2024 MY NYC “Oh, my nuclear baby. Oh, my idiot trance. All my idiot questions. Let’s face the music and dance…” – David Bowie

30 May 2024 MY #NYC “There goes my hero, watch him as he goes. There goes my hero, he’s ordinary…” Dave Grohl

MY N.Y.C. 30 May 2024 “I love women, I think they’re great. They’re a solace to the world in a terrible state. They’re a blessing to the eyes, a balm to the soul. What a nightmare to have no women in the world…” Lou Reed

MY NYC 5/29/24 “I’m in a straightjacket… I’m in a padded cell…a new disease is running through my veins…” Stu Richards

“Mama pajama rolled out of bed, and she ran to the police station. When the papa found out he began to shout, and he started the investigation…” – Paul Simon

MY NYC 24 May 2024 “…kids you better look around. How long you think that you can run that body down? How many nights you think that you can do… what you been doing? Who, now who you foolin’ …” Paul Simon

24 May 2024 MY N.Y.C. “Life, a transient odyssey, weaves a mysterious tapestry of moments that mold our very essence….”

Spaghetti Eastern Electro Dub Live @Silvana with MARK MURO in MY N.Y.C. HARLEM 24 May 2024 “If you’re tired of walkin’ around and getting nowhere, I know, there’s a path that’s leading towards the master. Love, devotion and surrender…” Carlos Santana

MY #NYC 23 May 2024 After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang out. We’re gonna cause talk and suspicion, give an exhibition, find out what it is all about…” JJ Cale

MY #NYC 16 May 2024 Sign Language …

MY #NYC 14 MAY 2024 “The king is gone, but he’s not forgotten. This is the story of a Johnny Rotten… it’s better to burn out than it is to rust…” Neil Young

MY #NYC 12 May 2024 Paul Collins, Sal Maida’s Bottom’s Up Band live at Bowery Electric with Mike Fornatale, Dennis Diken, Dave Amels, Dave Foster…

MY #NYC 8 May 2024: “We’ve got to judge the judge. We’ve got to find the finds. We’ve got to scheme the schemes. We’ve got to line the lines. Try to place the place where we can face the face…” Pete Townshend

MY #NYC 8 May 2024: “Sign, sign. everywhere a sign. Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind. Do this, don’t do that. Can’t you read the sign?” Five Man Electrical Band

MY #NYC 7 May 2024 “See her picture in a thousand places, ‘cause she’s this year’s girl. You think you all own little pieces of this year’s girl…” Elvis Costello

MY #NYC 6 May 2024: “Now this is a song to celebrate the conscious liberation of the female state…” Annie Lennox

MY #NYC 4 MAY 2024 “Somebody took the papers, and somebody’s got the key. But me, I’m down around the corner, you know, I’m lookin’ for Miss Linda Lee…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 3 May 2024 “I’ll say goodbye to all my sorrow. And by tomorrow I’ll be on my way, I guess the Lord must be in New York City…” Harry Nilsson

MY #NYC 3 May 2024 “I know what I know. I’ll sing what I said. We come and we go. That’s a thing that I keep in the back of my head…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 2 May 2024 “I get all the news I need on the weather report… hey, I’ve got nothing to do today but smile. And here I am, the only living boy in New York…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 1 May 2024 “For there’s Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the king of all, Sir Duke. And with a voice like Ella’s ringing out, there’s no way the band could lose…” Stevie Wonder

MY #NYC 30 April 2024 “Watch out world, comin’ at you full throttle. Better check that sausage before you put it in the waffle. And while you’re at it, better check that batter, make sure the candy’s in the original wrapper…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 29 April 2024 “Well I’m beginning to see the light. Some people work very hard, but still they never get it right….” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 4.27.24 “I have my books and my poetry to protect me. I am shielded in my armor…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 26 April 2024: “I want the principles of a timeless muse. I want to eradicate my negative views. And get rid of those people who are always on a down…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 4.25.24 “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Please won’t you be my neighbor?” – Fred McFeely Rogers

MY #NYC 15 April 2024 ‘Twas a sunny day…not a negative word was heard from the people passing by. All the birds in the trees, and the radio’s singing songs, all the favorite melodies…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 8 April 2024 “Blue, blue, electric blue, that’s the color of my room, where I will live…waiting for the gift of sound and vision…” David Bowie

MY #NYC 5 April 2024 “Every day you’ve got to wake up and disappear behind your makeup. Take away your calendar watch and you can’t keep track until your heart attack…” Jimmy Destri

MY #NYC 4 April 2024 “In the big apple, scars embedded like tattoos. Ghetto love, protection from what’s coming at you. Keeping our heads up, maintaining self-esteem, and reminiscing on the Harlem Nights scene…” Luther Vandross

MY #NYC 4 April 2024 In the Heights….

MY #NYC 4 April 2024 “I was staying at the Marriott, with Jesus and John Wayne. I was waiting for a chariot, they were waiting for a train…” Warren Zevon

MY #NYC 1 April 2024 “Somebody took the papers. And somebody’s got the key. And somebody’s nailed the door shut that says, ‘hey, what you think that you see?” …” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 30 March 2024 “Eh Cumpari, ci vo sunari. Can you dig it? Yes, I can. And I’ve been waiting such a long time. For Saturday…” – Robert Lamm

MY #NYC 29 March 2024 “If you want me to stay, I’ll be around today, to be available for you to see. But I am about to go and then you’ll know, for me to stay here, I got to be me…” Sly Stone

MY #NYC 28 March 2024 “I’m going uptown to Harlem. If a taxi won’t take me, I’ll catch a train. I’ll go underground, I’ll get there just the same….” Duke Ellington / Nick Kenny

MY #NYC 27 March 2024 “Is is. Therefore you are. I am. That I am. Let me be….” Leon Thomas

MY #NYC 21 March 2024 “Take a risk and listen to the radio, click your heels at the bi-polar disco. Fly down the villa destination sign, everybody feels the days but waits for summer nights…” Scott Weiland

MY #NYC 20 March 2024 “Caught between the twisted stars, the plotted lines, the faulty map that brought Columbus to New York…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 19 March 2024 Three Views of a Secret… Jaco Pastorius

MY #NYC 18 March 2024 “Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard, was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words…” Joni Mitchell

MY #NYC 13 March 2024 “Mama’s got a lover, a painter I am told. She’s getting out of real estate, for the art scene down in old Soho…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 13 March 2024: “Ah, but remember that the city is a funny place, something like a circus or a sewer. And just remember, different people have peculiar taste, and the glory of love… might see you through…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 12 March 2024: “You know the day destroys the night; night divides the day…” Jim Morrison

MY #NYC 7 March 2024: “As the twilight sunburst gleams, as the chromium moon it sets, as I lose all my regrets, and set the twilight reeling…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 3 March 2024 “Oye cómo va. Mi ritmo. Bueno pa’ gozar…” Tito Puente

MY #NYC 28 February 2024 “Old friends, old friends… sat on their park bench like bookends…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC 27 February 2024 “Man makes machines, to man the machines, that make the machines, that make the machines. And man and machine, will make a machine, to break the machines, that make the machines…” Pete Townshend

MY #NYC 25 February 2024 “Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten, from the Battery to the top of Manhattan, Asian, Middle-Eastern and Latin, Black, White, New York you make it happen…” Beastie Boys

MY #NYC 23 February 2024 “I couldn’t escape this feeling with my China girl, I’m just a wreck without my little China girl…” Iggy Pop

MY #NYC 23 February 2024 “They fought with their words, their bodies and their deeds, doin’ the things that they want to…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 18 February 2024 We’re an American brand…. Bleecker & Bowery

MY #NYC 27 January 2024 “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” Oscar Wilde

MY #NYC 14 January 2024 “I’ve got nothing to say but it’s okay, good morning, good morning, good…” John Lennon

MY #NYC 13 January 2024 “…just a perfect day, drink Sangria in the park, and then later, when it gets dark, we go home…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 7 January 2024 “Rainy day, dream away, let the sun take a holiday…” Jimi Hendrix

2021 – 2023

MY #NYC (June 2023) A Great Day in Harlem 1958 is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians in Harlem, New York, taken by freelance photographer Art Kane for Esquire magazine on August 12, 1958 at 17 East 126th Street

MY #NYC (31 December 2022) “Drop me off in Harlem, any place in Harlem There’s someone waiting there, who makes it seem like Heaven up in Harlem….”

MY #NYC 26 May 2022 “Eyes without a face / les yeux sans visage… I’m on a bus on a psychedelic trip reading murder books tryin’ to stay hip, I’m thinkin’ of you, you’re out there so, say your prayers…” Billy Idol

MY #NYC (17 January 2022) ‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp, when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light, that split the night, and touched the sound of silence….” Paul Simon

MY NYC 23 January 2024

MY #NYC (May 2022) “It’s up to you…New York, New York” A Mansion Diner denizen since I migrated to the Upper East Side in ’85… my sanctuary replete with black coffee, apple pie, and Sinatra on the sound system 24/7. A monument on York & 86th since June 1945…chatty waitresses, culinary anonymity, egalitarian reception no matter what condition I enter… says Ed Levine: “Diners are so important because they are the greatest bastions of civility, service, and dare I say grace available to all economic strata in this country.”

MY #NYC 26 January 2022

MY #NYC 1 February 2022 “And I’m laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone.. where the New York City winters aren’t bleedin’ me…leadin’ me…goin’ home…” Paul Simon

MY #NYC (May 14, 2022) “You don’t know what you’ll do until you’re put under pressure…across 110th Street is a hell of a tester…” Bobby Womack

MY #NYC 11 December 2023 “I think it’s the best, when I’m locked in the middle of New York city on Central Park ‘n’ West, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know it’s a mess, but you’ve got to be crazy to live in the city, and New York City’s the best….” Ian Hunter

MY #NYC (April 2023) “Ask the angels who they’re calling, go ask the angels if they’re calling to thee, ask the angels while they’re falling, who that person could possibly be…” Dave Grohl

MY #NYC 9 December 2023…out on the edges they’re mixin’ the colors, some they don’t like it, but me I don’t mind… Iggy Pop

MY #NYC (July 2023) “Caught between the twisted stars, the plotted lines, the faulty map, that brought Columbus to New York…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC 19 December 2023 “…everyone’s gazing at some body part. That’s the nature of art..” Iggy Pop

MY #NYC 12 December 2023 “Until you’ve seen this trash can dream come true, you stand at the edge while people run you through, and I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you…” Bernie Taupin

MY #NYC 20 December 2023 “Sunday morning brings the dawn in, it’s just a restless feeling by my side…” Lou Reed

MY #NYC (November 16, 2023) Dusk on the Upper East Side NYC…

MY #NYC (November 2023) Morning on the Upper East Side…

MY #NYC 8 April 2023 “The traffic’s so noisy it’s a shock, sounds like fireworks or a gun on the next block, ah, hooky wooky with you…” Lou Reed

By Tom Semioli : Note this op-ed was NOT composed by ChatGPT

*”Rock” is a term loosely used by the author.

In the beginning…

If I’ve learned anything in my sixty-three years on this mortal coil it’s that every generation (within my reach) holds their respective era of pop culture sacred. Sports, music, film, theater, television, radio, literature, fashion, journalism, art, and permutations thereof.

Everything was better “back in the day” including sex, drugs…and rock and roll!

My dad’s greaser pals revered Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis as the true rockers until “The Beatles came along and ruined everything….”

My (slightly) older colleagues beholden to the 1960s cannot imagine a world sans The Rolling Stones, Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan, among others. I was a three-and-a-half-year-old on 9 February 1964 whilst my family gathered to watch the black-and-white transmission of The Ed Sullivan Show. The closest I came to experiencing Beatlemania was when my mom dragged me to witness Help! at the British Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1965. The girls shrieked as if the lads were physically on stage. I get it. And now we have hologram concerts! How the mighty have profited postmortem…

In the 1970s I came of age in an ever-shifting landscape spanning Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Elton John, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, The Ramones, and Stevie’s Fleetwood Mac to cite a few. This decade of decadence and artistic innovation has been recast ad nauseum in film, cable television, theater, books, and multi-media exhibitions well into the 21st Century. I was there folks. The 1970s were very good, perhaps great, but let’s get over it already.

Maybe those ’50s rockers were on to something. From the 1960s onward rock fractured in several disparate directions. Some view it as expansion of the artform. Others maintain the artform was diluted. Rock and roll, at its very core beginning was/is the bastard child of country, folk, jazz, and blues – so there never really was a “pure” version of the genre.

Hence rock can be a hybrid of any of those aforementioned genres. And add the more recent musical formats such as rap, hip-hop, electronica and subdivisions thereof to the melting pot. Rock’s spirit of experimentation is certainly rooted in the 1960s, yet by the 1980s the tools were available to stretch the boundaries even farther.

Artists and Audience Enjoy the Benefits of New Tech…

Which brings us to the 1980s – the era wherein I worked as a musician. Once reviled, and oft relegated to kitschy nostalgia obsessed with big hair and even bigger shoulder pads, time has come today for a reevaluation of the decade. My stance is that the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s are not inferior. Simply, in the 1980s we built upon the greatness of those that came before us. And those that followed, namely the ’90s and 21st Century, basked in our shadow.

What happened?

Several watershed advances in technology were available to the artists and their audiences in relatively short time frame. This fact alone separates the decade from its ancestors.

In the studio, digital recording – cleaner and easier to edit and mix- overtook analog with its fragile inconsistent tapes which were prone to wear and tear; were easily damaged, and poorly duplicated. The introduction of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) changed the game with combining sounds and timbre. The horizon of tones and textures became limitless.

When Yamaha debuted the portable and affordable DX7 keyboard in 1983 – rock stars to neighborhood bar bands now had an infinite number of sounds and textures at their disposal. You could bring arena rock to your local pub. Orchestral works could now be replicated on stage. I was witness to Paul McCartney bringing side two of Abbey Road to sonic life at Madison Square Garden in 1989 – something the Fabs and George Martin couldn’t have fathomed in 1969.

Electric basses and guitars vastly improved with active electronics, new ergonomic designs (Steinberger), effects pedals and rack mounts which, akin to their keyboard cousins, were portable, affordable, and durable.

In particular, the electric bass dominated the decade. No longer relegated to a low rumble in the stage mix or hum on record, bass players were now coming to the forefront as both groove masters and melodic equals. Note that on many ‘80s hits – the bass is the hook!

Guitar and bass rigs became more reliable, moveable, and noise reduction developments (including instrument pick-ups) eliminated unwanted din and distortion – or enhanced it if you were so inclined. Acoustic guitar and horn pickups became the norm – every note rendered could now resonate on record and on stage. Wireless systems afforded guitarists and bassists the freedom to prance about the stage and occasionally snag the spotlight.

Electronic Simmonds and Linn drums put percussionists in the same league as their voltage enhanced comrades.

The multi-track Porta-Studio replaced the cassette deck – hence demos became more precise – affording composers and arrangers more tools to hone their craft in their bedrooms and rehearsal studios. Heck, “unsigned” rockers released cassettes recorded and mixed on said gear which sold in indie shops and such chains as Tower Records.

With the advances in music instrument tech, home and compact audio systems also developed in leaps and bounds. Compact Discs relegated vinyl, 8-track cartridges, and cassettes to dinosaur status. CDs eliminated surface noise and did away with the degradation and fragility of the LP / cassette since nothing actually touched the surface of the medium, and they were usable at home or on the road in a Walkman or car disc player.

New recording tech, new gear, a new music delivery system all added up to recordings that sounded better than ever. In fact, record companies helmed by profit motivated bean counters began to digitize, remaster, and repackage their valuable back catalogs complimented by sales gimmicks to sell Boomers their old records again: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, followed shortly by the Reunion Tour…and later, the Never-Ending Farewell Tour.

Much of the aforementioned tech innovations had their shortcomings at first, but they were upgraded in ensuing years. All progress is messy at best. Musicians, experimental by nature, took the new technology and ran with it – sonically, and artistically.

I Want My MTV…

Of course, no discussion of the 1980s cannot ignore the impact of MTV. Though 24/7 cable TV video didn’t quite kill the radio star (radio killed itself with media consolidation), that dirty ass genre known as rock and roll was absorbed into the entertainment industry mainstream.

When MTV became fairer and more balanced, the platform afforded exposure to artists who would have gone otherwise unnoticed in secondary and tertiary markets. Programs such as 120 Minutes, Headbangers Ball, Yo! MTV appealed to hardcore and casual audiences alike.

Props to MTV Europe whose videos veered more towards artistic expression as MTV USA fell prey to product placement and degenerated into soft-core porn.

I watched for research purposes only….

From hair bands to pretty boy-and-girl techno rockers, having a bigger and more bombastic mainstream also begat a healthy, stealthy “alternative” DIY scene in many a college town, which would eventually rise to the surface in the 1990s. The 1980s were a golden era of indie rock with loud guitars and melodies.

Sad Songs Say So Much…

To my ears, the 1980s was the last era of classic pop songwriting, based on the two forms of musical structure familiar to our western ears: AABA / “Tin Pan Alley” and “12 bar blues” and all the permutations thereof. I won’t debate the songs nor the artists. Each spoke to their generation in their language.

And I extend kudos to the ’60s and ’70s rockers who were able to adapt and reinvent themselves as the concept of the “legacy artist” had not quite gestated until the end of the decade.

To my ears, the 1980s was the greatest era of musicianship. 1980s musicians were educated in the 1970s, hence we read music, not tablature. We also learned aplenty from the past masters of our respective instruments. Those of us who were serious about our careers delved into theory and composition – as did previous generations. Again, we had more tools. For example, when you composed a horn or a string passage, you could actually hear it (and modify it) in the moment thanks to electronic keyboards. And you could play it on the gig the same day! Think of what Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn could have accomplished with such toys! Composition was everywhere!

Instructional VHS tapes afforded players private lessons with the greats to compliment a formal music education.

All That Jazz….

Though its roots lie in the soul-jazz movement as exemplified by CTI recordings in the late 1960s and 1980s, contemporary jazz and jazz fusion fell (mostly) into the category of “smooth jazz” or “quiet storm” – two hideous marketing titles. Many jazz artists approached the art of recording akin to rockers in that the long-player was not simply a souvenir of a live performance, but an entity unto itself. Yet jazz was still considered popular music – and the masses responded. Witness hits by George Benson (“Give Me The Night”), Herbie Hancock (“Rockit”), and Anita Baker (“Caught Up in the Rapture,” “Sweet Love”), to cite a few – all of which brought audiences back into the clubs and prompted the casual listener to purchase jazz recordings.

The bassist named for a small, sharp pointed organ at the end of the abdomens of bees employed many a contemporary jazz star for his stellar debut disc The Dream of the Blue Turtles in 1985, namely Darryl Jones (Miles Davis, Steps Ahead), Kenny Kirkland (Branford and Wynton Marsalis), Branford Marsalis, and Omar Hakim (Weather Report).

In 1986 a jazz film ‘Round Midnight starring Dexter Gordon (Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), and Herbie Hancock, was a resounding box-office success. Jazz was hip again in Hollywood! Bassists Marcus Miller and Stanely Clarke, among many others composed numerous television and film scores.

Though ’70s jazz superstars Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Weather Report flamed out – save for Jaco Pastorius’ brilliant World Of Mouth (1981), Miles was still leader of the pack even as Wynton Marsalis became the “chief of jazz police” – determining what jazz is and what jazz is not. Refer to Ken Burns’ woefully incomplete and misinformed PBS Jazz (2001) documentary series which anointed the bloviating trumpeter as spokesperson for a genre he did absolutely nothing to advance.

Sadly, jazz has yet to recover from the death of Davis in 1991 and Wynton Marsalis’ shameful, pandering corporate sell-out of the artform. (Wanna know how I really feel?)

I Want to Play for You… Last Era of Guitar Gods… Instrumental Virtuosos….

The decade was rife with instrumental virtuosos who inspired us to be better. To cite a few: Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Johnny Marr, Randy Rhoades, G.E. Smith, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Stanley Jordan, The Edge, Emily Remler, Joe Satriani, Prince, Mark Knopfler, Slash, Mike Campbell, Mike Stern, John Scofield, John Ashton, Mark King, Flea, Pino Palladino, Marcus Miller, Geddy Lee, Tony Levin, Fernando Saunders, Doug Wimbish, Cliff Burton, Tony Franklin, John Taylor, Will Lee, Mick Karn, Bakithi Kumalo, Carmine Rojas, Robbie Shakespeare, Guy Pratt, Sting, Darryl Jones, Billy Sheehan, Neal Peart, Steve Gadd, Stuart Copeland, Phil Collins, Jeff Porcaro, Chad Smith, Kenny Aaronoff, Vinnie Colaiuta, Simon Phillips, Greg Phillinganes, Howard Jones, Vince Clarke, David Paich, Thomas Dolby…

Rock and a Hard Place…Prog Progress

Among the most significant musical developments of the 1980s was the evolution of hard rock.

In the disco era of the mid to late ’70s, the genre became irrelevant as its greatest practitioners – Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin, among others either broke up, or lost their way due to substance abuse. However “heavy metal” a term attributed to many sources, was regrouping by ’78. Bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Def Leppard, Motorhead – all founded in the ‘70s – were all laying the groundwork for the “New Wave of British Metal.”

“We want to be the band that if we moved in next door to you, your lawn would die.” bassist Ian Fraser Kilmister aka “Lemmy”

By way of new recording technology, as referenced above, heavy metal and hard rock records sounded far superior to their ancestors in the ’70s. The muddy din of such metal classics as Deep Purple’s In Rock, and Machine Head along with all the Black Sabbath releases from ’70s up until the Dio years which began in 1980 – though influential, were rendered sonically ancient – even with their ’90s remasters.

Similar to the way ’80s pop artists were improving on the work of their predecessors, these artists hit their stride in the new decade. And there was plenty of room for the older guard as well: Ozzy Osbourne with Randy Rhoads, Ronnie James Dio, Robert Plant, Rainbow, a reformed Deep Purple, a sober Alice Cooper, a rejuvenated AC / DC, Whitesnake, Runaways alumnae Joan Jett and Lita Ford, among others waxed classic sides.

Aerosmith commenced their first career resurgence, collaborating with Run DMC on their classic track “Walk This Way” – which ran in heavy, heavy, heavy rotation on MTV and was a major factor in hip-hop crossing over into the mainstream.

In California, it was no surprise that the west coast hard rockers took their artistic and aesthetic cues from Hollywood. Made-for-MTV collectives including Van Halen with a bona fide rock god guitarist, Motley Crue, Poison, Dokken, Warrant, and New Jersey heartthrob Bon Jovi, topped the charts. Guns ‘n’ Roses upgraded the Aerosmith / Rolling Stones modus operandi with great success . Underground metal mavens Slayer, Anthrax, and Metallica also enjoyed commercial acceptance.

In fact, it was ’80s metal which paved the way for ‘90s alternative – which was essentially a stripped-down version of ’80s hard rock with no guitar solos, no keyboards, no entertainment value, and with desperation replacing celebration.

Prog rock – emblematic of ’70s excess – went decidedly pop and further opened the genre to millions of new listeners. Though purists revile this era of “prog progress” it was a natural growth. Bands such as Rush, King Crimson, Yes, and Genesis / Phil Collins / Peter Gabriel (’70s vets all) retained their signature instrumental prowess while trimming the bloated filler that weighed down many a prog-rock platter.

The Blues Never Went Away…

A genre most responsible of the artform that is rock and roll – the blues, did not enjoy a comeback simply because it never really went away. You can’t keep a virtuoso down for long. Thanks to ‘80s technology, the blues sounded fresher than in previous generations. 1980s Blues artists did not try to “sound” old. Vintage gear was left where it belonged – in the storage bins or museums!

Players such as Stevie Ray Vaughn served as a conduit to blues’ illustrious past. Yes, he worked his Hendrix mojo to the max. Which prompted young players to research Jimi – note all the Hendrix re-issues throughout the decade. Not a bad thing to my ears.

Eric Clapton started sounding like Eric Clapton again on Journeyman (1989). Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time (1989) scored several Grammys for its indelible meld of songcraft and musicianship. Jeff Healy, Robert Cray, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, George Thorogood, Colin James, and Robben Ford, cut remarkable records that resonated beyond the genre’s faithful.

Once again, the older guard thrived: Johnny Winter, ZZ Top, J. Geils Band, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, to cite a few, continued their mastery and influence. Agreed, The Blues Brothers album and film were steeped in parody, however it reminded a new generation the importance of Memphis Stax, and Muscle Shoals. The movie also brought Aretha Franklin back into the mainstream.

The World’s Most Dangerous Band…

Assuming the mantle created by Doc Severinsen’s legendary NBC Orchestra as heard on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson – bandleader Paul Shaffer and bassist Will Lee’s groundbreaking tenure in the World’s Most Dangerous Band for David Letterman’s Late Night and Late Show brought the language of rock, blues, soul, folk, country, jazz fusion, and funk to the Great American Songbook: a major shift in pop culture that happened in the 1980s!

Snthly The Best…

Call it “New Romantic,” “Synth Pop,” call it whatever you like. In the 1980s British artists such as Spandau Ballet, OMD, Duran Duran, Art of Noise, Erasure, Human League, Heaven 17, Culture Club, Depeche Mode, and Gary Numan, among others, appropriated the same three chords Chuck Berry rendered on “Johnny B. Goode,” transferred Brill Building harmonies to electronic keyboards, tarted up their appearance, and created a sound unique to any generation before or after. Try that in the 1990s or 21^st Century!

Keys also played a key role in the resurrection of soul music. Now dubbed “contemporary rhythm and blues” legacy artists along with a new breed of singers borne of a jazz gospel pedigree stood toe to toe with Motown, and Sound of Philly’s finest. Whitney Houston, Darryl Hall and John Oates, Tina Turner, Lionel Ritchie, Prince, Michael Jackson, Terence Trent D’Arby (Sananda Maitreya), Diana Ross, and Madonna cut electro groove tracks that moved a generation – literally and physically – with melodies to boot!

Even teen pop pablum artists-steeped in dance / disco mode, such as New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, Laura Branigan, and New Edition used new tech to their artistic and commercial advantage.

Make Americana Great Again…

Artists influenced by the folk, singer-songwriter, and outlaw country artists of previous decades created a sub-genre which embraced all the aforementioned camps.

Americana or “roots rock” artists including Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, John Cougar Mellencamp, Jason and the Scorchers, Steve Earle, The Del Lords, Chris Isaak, The Blasters, and Los Lobos all commenced careers which extend well into the 21^st Century.

George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison – then old geezers in their mid-40s – collaborated as The Travelling Wilburys for a classic slab that reminded the kids where it all came from. Folk rockers including Suzanne Vega (with KYBP on Film bassist Mike Visceglia), and Tracy Chapman topped the charts too, and exemplified the diversity of the era.

Prince… (No Explanation Necessary)

Seminal Moment…

The 1960s were defined by the Woodstock Music Festival. Several music extravaganzas emerged in the 1970s, with George Harrison’s Concert For Bangladesh in 1971 being the most memorable. For the 1980s it was Bob Geldof’s Live Aid. Though Queen stole the show, my favorite performance was Bryan Ferry with bassist Marcus Miller and moonlighting Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

You could argue that Woodstock was the G.O.A.T. however the “Live Aid” tag did not plague the artists who appeared, whereas the “Woodstock” association branded bands who were far more expansive than that one psychedelic moment in time. The 1990s’ attempt to restage three days of peace and love was a disaster.

By the ’80s, the musicianship and staging was significantly more developed. Good work Woodstock – thanks for the idea George, but Live Aid was better.

Smells Like Teen Redundancy …

Why not the 90s? Great songs, great artists, and the infusion of hip-hop, rap, and electronica continued but was no longer as groundbreaking as it was in the 80s. Rock commenced its backward slide. Pro-Tools, with its cut-and-paste modus operandi didn’t require instrumental proficiency.

Musicianship in general plummeted. Especially my instrument, the electric bass, which on most ’90s rock recordings served as a root note adjunct to the guitar. As a result, by the 2000s the electric bass vanished from pop records, a trend which continues well into the 2020s. Props to all the ’90s jam bands, in particular Dave Matthews, Phish, 311 to name three, who kept the musicianship bar high.

The 1990s put a new coat of paint on old ideas. By the 2000s and beyond, pop culture became American Idol-ized. We were better off when ugly people made beautiful music instead of the other way around! Song structure which served Frank Sinatra to Phil Collins gave way to algorithms and scientifically certified pleasurable timbres. The triumph of spectacle over substance became evident not only in music, but in American life. If only Nero were here to fiddle with auto-tune!

For all ye who opine that the high-tech, spandexed, Aqua-Netted ’80s strayed too far from the proletariat roots of rock and roll, imagine if you will Jimi Hendrix with a guitar synthesizer, and massive digital video monitors. How would The Beatles have taken Sgt. Pepper to the stage with keyboard samples, lasers, and moving stages? What could Elvis Presley’s TCB cats have conjured with MIDI?

Granted, the 1980s got lucky. We stood on the shoulders of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. The results of years of technological and artistic experimentation, innovation, and tech hardware came to fruition at the onset of the decade. Audiences were ready for something new. “Retro” – which wasn’t even a term then, was passe. In the current pop realm especially, the 1980s are oft imitated but never surpassed. Rock music in all its sub-genres has been in a perpetual rinse and repeat cycle for the entirety of the 21st Century.

You could argue that the 1980s is the G.O.A.T. by accident, sheer luck…or by design. You could be wrong, you could be right. What say you Johnny?