Sunday, April 13, 2014

DAY 122 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64
Spring Day - Andrei Chernyschev
In a world where thrushes sing 
and willow trees are golden in the spring,
 boredom should have been included 
among the seven deadly sins.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Rosemary Tree
 
The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.
Emily Dickinson
 
Flora - Lawrence Alma-Tadema
  April 13, 1964
On April 13, 1964, Sidney Poitier became 
the first black performer in a leading role 
to win an Academy Award for his 
performance in Lilies of the Field.

The music we listened to in the fifties and early sixties didn't always have words sung by a group or male or female singer. Sometimes the music was made with instruments only. The tunes might have had words that could be sung, but the musicians played on without vocals interpreting their music. These were instrumentals. The Big Band sound of the forties era gave way to the early rock and roll bands and musicians of the fifties and early sixties. This was our generation's time on the music stage of history. Talented performers rocked us with their music, and we rolled along with them through our growing years.

Rebel Rouser
By 1963 Duane Eddy had 
sold 12 million records.
Know for his twangy guitar
and reverberation
Duane Eddy - 1958

   Raunchy
Duane Eddy - 1963

Sleep Walk 
Entered Billboard's Top 40 and rose
to the number-one position for two weeks.
Reached number four on the R&B chart.
The last instrumental to hit number one
in the 1950s and earned Santo & Johnny
a gold record. 

Santo & Johnny - 1959

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each
flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Sensitive Plant


Every spring
I hear the thrush singing
in the glowing woods
he is only passing through.
His voice is deep,
then he lifts it until it seems
to fall from the sky.
I am thrilled.
I am grateful.
Then, by the end of morning,
he's gone, nothing but silence
out of the tree
where he rested for a night.
And this I find acceptable.
Not enough is a poor life.
But too much is, well, too much.
Imagine Verdi or Mahler
every day, all day.
It would exhaust anyone.

Mary Oliver,
A Thousand Mornings
Pretty Spring Day - Heinz Scholnhammer

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