Leonard Cohen could write a song.

And people who try to cover him have no fear...

My favorite version of this is Jeff Buckley's version, famously used on an episode of "The West Wing" by Aaron Sorkin.

Enjoy!

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4

This is another one from our dance band, the Beltway Rockers... but to be fair, I watched Guardians of the Galaxy recently, so it may have been that as well.

Just a great song, and a truly great performance with Gaye and Tammi Terrell... enjoy!

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C_3eYj-pOM

That bearded Maestro is Sousa himself, the March King.

And behind him is the Marine Band, the longest continuous musical institution in the United States. They are, without equivocation, the best concert band in the world... and my wife Karen is their harp. They are the music for the White House and for the Commandant of the Marine Corps. They are exemplars of the best traditions of music, of service and of our history.

When Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, the Marine Band played him in. Can you imagine?

It has been joy to me to get to see her perform, and even more joy to see her prepare. It's one thing to see a master musician do their thing, it's quite another to have one in your home... what can I say?

God loves me way more than I deserve.

Anyway, this day began with "Semper Fidelis" - and if you haven't heard the Band do it, you are in for a treat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgABUZ4i9co

Always Faithful indeed.

When I was 13 or so, I found my parent's old record player... and a stash of music they had bought as kids in the 60's. What a treasure trove it was, an eclectic collection of tunes that spanned the vinylverse and traveled through time to hit me right in the breadbasket.

One of the records I just fell in love with was Herman's Hermits, There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World.

And from that album, the song about mind reading and shared experience has stuck with me: "If You're Thinkin' What I'm Thinkin'."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnHueg9b6BQ
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I'm amazed at the depth of memory that comes from actively focusing on these tunes beyond my normal routine.

Enjoy!

This is a recent addition to the set list of our dance band, The Beltway Rockers...

"Valerie" (Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeVUvA_BOzs

This one was written by Dave McCabe Russell Pritchard Sean Payne Abi Harding Paul Molloy Boyan Chowdhury.

Which is three more writers than chords in the song... but you know what? This one is just crazy fun.

​When it works it just works.

Enjoy!

My daughter (Evangeline, a VERY precocious 11) and I have taken to affectionately calling each other "Weirdo."

Probably not the best nickname for that stage of life for a young lady, but we say it with love.

LOVE YOU WEIRDO...

And we laugh, because it's funny.  And as Sigmund said correctly, we "laugh because it's true."

But one of the things that I suspect is odd about me is that I hear music in my head. That comes in various forms... stuff I'm working on with our church, or our dance band that will someday play out again post COVID, or things that I've heard that captured the reptilian part of my brain by hook or by crook.

Sometimes it's music that hasn't been written yet, that's mostly pretty bad, and is mostly for my ears alone.

One of the internal manifestations of this for me is that when I wake up in the morning, it is almost always to an internal soundtrack and it sort of becomes the opening musical score for the day. It normally follows me around for a bit and then I get distracted by a dog, or a phone call or la Chupacabra on the interwebs.

And it can be literally anything, from Holtz, to MoTown to "You Are My Sunshine" - pretty much anything in my subconscious seems to be fair game.

I tracked this for 10 days or so, and for no particular reason, I'd like to share with you... The Music in My Head. It will be a motley collection, that I promise.

Here we go!

Up first is this one...

"The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" by Switchfoot and with a bit of fortuitous fun, they did a COVID version of this one from their respective homes.  Enjoy!

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhR6qV_WWxs


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“Without music, life would be a blank to me.”― Jane Austen