back in the late summer of 1976, i came crawling back home to east texas after yet another ill-fated adventure with beau [one of several i haven't written about yet], humbly enrolled as a freshman in tyler junior college for the upcoming fall semester and took a job at the nearest ken's pizza [which, unbelievably, is apparently still there] to help pay my way through same.
it was hard, miserable work, except for when it wasn't--once the doors closed for the night, we jacked up the jukebox, cued up our favorites and rocked the night away as we cleaned the place up, and life was good.
until that fateful night when somebody pushed the wrong button and instead of "dreamweaver," we got the b side. at first we were, like, wtf, and then the bassline kicked in and "let it out" pretty much immediately moved into high rotation on our nightly hit parade. we kept waiting for gary to release it as a stand-alone single, but it never happened.
* * * * *
flash-forward 25 (+/-) years: my baby sister the producer [about as impressed with celebrity as i am, god love her--she once left me a message saying "mike, i'm stuck entertaining the dalai lama tonight--anything you want me to ask him?"], walked in one night, tossed me a cd and said, "i interviewed gary wright last week for a piece on vintage rockers and i know you love him, so i asked him to autograph his 'best of' for you."
to which, after flipping it over and scanning the contents, i could only cry in injured disbelief, "where the fuck is 'let it out'?!"
* * * * *
flash-forward to now: i'm drinking tonight and this poor, great, unappreciated song is what came up on shuffle at just the right point in my incipient drunkenness [what--you expected a different explanation for this post?].
5 comments:
Well, it is a soulful song even if the YouTube video got blocked.
But, I find it ironic that you worked in a pizza parlor. I mean, you never cook.
As for the drinking, I am just checking in and seeing how the weight issue and your otherwise vegan diet is holding up. How about an update?
noblesavage: and you'll never know how infuriating that was, after spending the better part of an hour putting together and uploading that motherfucker--i mean, you'd think whoever owns the rights to this song nobody's ever heard would appreciate the free plug, but noooooo, i guess not. actually, i'm kinda surprised you know it.
as for the diet, i've added some cooked food [see? i cook] back into the mix, but mostly stuff like quinoa and black beans--and a little meat and eggs here and there. still about 2/3 raw, tho.
as for the weight, i'm hovering around 215, which is a little annoying considering all my selfless sacrifices, but god knows it could be worse (and has been). thanks for asking.
I saw Gary Wright at that Ringo Starr concert earlier this month at the Greek Theatre! He still sounds amazing!
so tell me how *you* cook quinoa. I have a box in my pantry, but am slightly intimidated by the stuff. The last couple of times I've had it I thought I was going to hurl.
wat: i generally can't stand live music, but i'm really sorry i missed that concert.
judi: my method's very simple:
add 1 cup of uncooked quinoa [some people say you need to rinse it--i don't] to a saucepan containing 2 cups of lightly salted cold water, bring to a boil, reduce to lowest possible heat, cover and allow to cook just until all liquid is absorbed (maybe 10-12 minutes, depending on your stove), and then dump into a bowl and fluff with a fork.
when prepared in this way it always turns out non-gummy and delicious, and it's much better for you than rice.
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