Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight & The Pips

If I could be a member of any group in Rock history, I would be one of the Pips. More then being a member of the Beatles or even a member of the E Street Band I would be a Pip, and I’m not only one who feels this way.



I mean the Pips really are coolest back-up singers of all time. I mean check out this Geico commercial.



LOL “Take a train to happy town.” I mean c’mon people what is not to love about this commercial. I’m not being facetious or ironic in my love the of the Pips, I’m serious. These guys have inspired generations. Look at this little girl wanting to be a Pip.



Then there’s Gladys Knight, one of the greatest vocalist in popular music. Add her brother and their two cousins and you got Gladys Knight & The Pips. Gladys Knight started performing as a child. If you thought Michael Jackson was a child protégé check out Gladys at age seven.



Do you hear the way she shapes the melody by pulling back at the ends of phrases? Then she just floats up to the higher notes and slowly builds through the song. Oh good glory hallelujah, that last note. That’s righteous. If that’s how you sound at age seven, then I guess it's no surprise that she became the known as the Empress of Soul. Her impact can be heard in pretty much every female singer in popular music. Mariah Carey when inducting her into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame said, “She’s like a textbook to learn from. You hear her delivery, and you wish you could communicate with as much honesty and emotion as she does.”



Gladys Knight & The Pips recording of “Midnight Train To Georgia” is one of those songs that is so beautifully performed and nuanced that I wonder how it doesn’t impact everyone who hears it. I don’t like saying comments like “if this doesn’t song doesn’t make you cry, you must be dead” because people have said that to me about songs that they love that really didn’t do it for me. But I get what they mean because sometimes a song touches you in such an immediate and real way that you cannot imagine it not having that effect on everyone who hears it.

The Pips act as the Greek chorus filling in details and giving the audience insight into the story that is being told. The Pips utilize every note they sing to add to the emotional impact of the story. My favorite Pip moment in this song comes at 1:35 in. The Pips sing “uh, uh,” Gladys responds with an “uh,” and the Pips immediately respond back with “no uh, uh.” Then it gets better as the Pips sing “woo, woo, woo” which reflects back to the train sound in chorus, but is used hear to describe the sorrow and crying as he has to sell his car.

“I’d rather live in his world, than live without him in mine.”

Gladys says it all in one line. She’s embracing her man not when things are going to great but in a moment of his failure. Gladys sings with a combination of gospel expression with a soulful elegance. She opens up on higher notes but it’s the quiet moments, which draw the listener in as she tells a story with every single word she sings.

All aboard to the midnight train to Georgia y’all. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Is Buffy making me pathetic?

“you are turning pathetic!! Imagine when you really are a father!”

One of my friends wrote this in response to last week’s post about Buffy, and you know, she’s right. On Saturday, I had to induce vomiting on Buffy because she ate some chewing gum and watching her lap up the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and milk and then puke over and over and I experienced this intense feeling of fear, helplessness and most of all guilt. I saw Buffy going for that piece of gum on the ground and before I could get it out of her mouth, it was gone and because of my error, I had to force my little girl to throw up.

Things ended up fine, she threw up the gum quickly, and afterward she preceded to fall asleep and later she was playing as if nothing had happened. This whole ordeal was probably more traumatic for me than it was for Buffy.

That wasn’t the first time that day that my paternal instinct kicked in overtime. Earlier in the afternoon Buffy was running around and playing with another puppy. The other puppy was a little bit older and a lot more hyper so her owner kept her on leash so that Buffy could approach and get to know this other puppy as she felt comfortable. As both dogs got to know each other the other puppy was let off her leash and Buffy and this puppy rolled around and chased each other.

Aww. . . look at them play, so cute . . . UNTIL the other puppy slide tackles Buffy. Diana quickly swept Buffy up, the other dog backed off and once Buffy had calmed down Diana let her down and to our dismay, Buffy was walking with a limp. Her back right leg was bothering her and as I watched Buffy limp around I was overcome with a feeling of wanting to drop-kick the other dog for messing with Buffy. However, this proved unnecessary, as Buffy was fine after a couple minutes. Little did I know that only a couple hours later Buffy would go through a more serious ordeal.

Now Buffy tries to eat EVERYTHING and in general that’s not such a bad thing but we do live in the city and on our short “walks” there is a lot for her to try to eat and chew on. So when she started going for that piece of gum on the ground and then it was gone. I reached into her mouth and I found nothing.

I don’t really know all that much about dogs mind you so I figured I should call Buffy’s vet to double check on this gum issue. Since it was a Saturday, the vet’s office was closed so I called the local animal hospital and they told me to call animal poison control.

Now Animal Poison Control Center (ASPCA) is an organization that provides resources for pet owners included a 24/7 hot line for questions about animal emergencies. I called up the number and one of the recorded prompts informed me that there was a fee involved to get a “consultation.” I immediately hung up the phone thinking this was bogus. I could probably find out the information I needed on the internet, right? But as I looked down at Buffy, I realized the internet wasn’t going to cut it. This was information about my puppy’s health I needed, not a recipe for pulled pork I was looking for.

I called back ASPCA and talked to one of their consultants. I gave her all of Buffy’s information, she talked to the vet on call and she told me to induce vomiting with Buffy. Here’s the deal, sugarless gum has a chemical called Xylitol. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used in candy, and throat lozenges. This chemical is harmless to humans but causes a deadly surge of insulin in dogs.

I don’t know if the gum that Buffy ate was sugarless gum and even if it was the fact that it was a chewed piece of sugarless gum would have a low level of Xylitol. However, Buffy is a little less than four pounds so even a small amount could cause an issue so to play it safe we got the gum out of her system and thankfully Buffy recovered after no time acting like her normal self a couple hours later.

I wanted so much for Buffy to understand that I'm sorry and I don’t how she understands about all that happened. All I could do was hold her that evening and try to make her feel warm and safe so somehow she could understand how much she means to me.

You may come to the conclusion after reading this that I’m just an over-emotional dog owner and that I am indeed “turning pathetic.” All I got to say in response it that I’m not turning pathetic, I think I’ve always been a little pathetic when it comes to the people I care for in my life.

And seriously, with a puppy this cute, I think you would turn a little pathetic too.

Buffy Video

Well, if you thought the pictures of Buffy were cute . . .

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

Before I went to the Elton John & Billy Joel “Face 2 Face” last Tuesday I checked out the song list for Elton John’s solo portion of the concert:

Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)
Levon
Madman Across The Water
Tiny Dancer
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Daniel
Rocket Man
Philadelphia Freedom
I'm Still Standing
Crocodile Rock

Looking at this list I predicted that “Crocodile Rock” and “Tiny Dancer” would be crowd favorites. Everyone loves the “Naaaaaa Nanana Naaaaaa” part of the “Crocodile Rock” though the appeal of the song is a little lost on me, and “Tiny Dancer” with the help of Almost Famous has become one of his most loved songs.



So when Elton John introduced “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” I was surprised when he introduced it as a song for everyone to sing along with and everyone in the stadium did.

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is the title track of what many consider Elton John’s greatest album. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 91 in there list of 500 greatest albums of all time calling the album “supersonically huge.” Commenting on the title track Rolling Stone credited Elton John and his writing partner Bernie with harassing “the fantastical imagery of glam to a Gershwin-sweet melody.” Elton John performed three songs from the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in his solo set which is more songs than he played from any other of his other thirty solo album.

“Goodbye Yellow Brick” road contains one of the most powerful literary allusions in popular music. The Wizard Of Oz is one of the most beloved films and books in American history speaking both as a fairy tale and a commentary on the industrialization. The yellow brick road is Dorothy’s path to Oz, the place where she believes will help her get home. The yellow brick road represent hope through a difficult journey as well as disillusions in the revelation that the Wizard of Oz is a charlatan.

When John sings the words “goodbye yellow brick road” it’s a farewell to past dreams. At the end of the chorus when John sings “I’ve finally found what I’m looking for, beyond the yellow brick road,” it speaks to the idea that there is something more meaningful out there than the path that is given. This reflection is all the more powerful with Elton John’s incredible voice.

When Elton John first recorded “Goodbye Yellow Brick” his light tenor effortlessly fliped into his soaring falsetto. If you listen to his older recordings there is a sense of innocence but also a slight edge that injects his words with passion.



Listening to Elton John now, his voice has developed into a rich baritone. The falsetto is gone and during most performances now he relies on his back up singers to sing the higher notes like on the word “blue" right before the chorus. This may seem like a negatives but the remarkable richness and depth in tone more than makes up for the lack of falsetto . John’s music always had maturity to it and now more than ever, his voice expresses the layered emotions and meaning in his music.



As Elton John sang, “Goodbye Yellow Brick” road in Wrigley field images of him in the 1970s filled the screen above the stage. This feeling of nostalgia combined with the warm rush of emotion that emanated from the thousands of voices singing together was simply magical.

Prelude/Angry Young Man by Billy Joel

Wrigley field suddenly went dark.

Elton John had just closed his part of the concert with an exhilarating performance of “Crocodile Rock” and the enormous stage providing the only light in the field went black. The sun had set on this warm Chicago evening and a sold-out stadium eagerly awaited Billy Joel to start his set.

As soon as I leaned back in my chair to reflect on Elton’s set, a flurry of notes filled the auditorium. On the first cymbal hit, white lights flooded the stadium. Billy Joel’s hands appeared on the huge screens on both sides of the stage like a blur as Joel attacked the keys with manic fury.

The band entered as the flurry of notes moved into angry syncopated hits followed by a more reflective and peaceful arpeggios (0:30). The rest of the band joined in to create a peaceful groove. Then the flurry of notes suddenly returned with an unrelenting intensity and instead of building into the peaceful arpeggios, the next section was a Joel pounding octaves on the piano setting up a rhythmic tension against the bass line (1:35). With the end of the “Prelude,” it was time for Joel to tells us about the “Angry Young Man.”

Billy Joel’s 1976 album Turnstiles marked his return to New York after living in Los Angeles. This album featured songs like “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “New York State of Mind” that reflected this move.



Even though these songs and others like “I’ve Loved These Days” had a heartfelt feeling of nostalgia, Joel’s sarcastic, disillusioned and bitter attitude shown through in “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights God Out on Broadway” an story of a post-apocalyptic New York and in “Prelude/Angry Young Man.”



Billy Joel never released “Prelude/Angry Young Man” as a single but it has become a fan favorite during Joel’s live performance. After seeing him perform it live last night, I understand why.

Joel performed “Angry Young Man” not so much singing them but ranting. The words move pass so quickly in the verses in the and it’s not until the bridge do you get a real sense of what he’s talking about.

I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
I once believed in causes too,
I had my pointless point of view,
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right.

When Joel got to the words “pointless point of view” and I could here the crowd sing along with this specific line more than other part of the bridge with a feeling of glory. Intellectually this seemed odd, but emotional it felt amazing.

I get frustrated with some thing sometimes and I often have rants. For example, I hate it when news stations don’t report facts? Like seriously, they haven’t done a paternity or DNA test to show that Michael Jackson’s kids aren’t related to him biologically, then stop reporting that people are speculating this. That’s not news and for the love of God stop analyzing hypothetical situations like the implications if they aren’t his kids. You might as well analyze the every other “what if” scenario, like “I heard from someone that Michael Jackson once bought woman’s underwear, what if Michael Jackson is actually a girl?”

As much as things like this aggravate me, it’s a great feeling when you give someone a rant and they know what you mean. Sharing emotion, any kind of emotion is a human connection that enriches our humanity. In his own way, Billy Joel brought together the frustration that we all share and made us feel for a moment of time that it was not so bad.

Meet Buffy, our new puppy!!

Quick side-note: Diana and I want to make sure that Buffy is well-socialized dog and meets as many people as possible. If you are in the area and want to spend some quality time with the cutest puppy you have ever seen drop me a line: tang.kingsley@gmail.com. Now on to the PUPPY!!

One week after our first wedding anniversary we the best anniversary gift EVER! Buffy, our new puppy.

Buffy is a Shetland Sheepdog more commonly known as Shelties. People often refer to them as miniature Collies (ala Lassie) however, Shelties are a different breed with distinctive characteristics. People originally bred Shelties to suit the terrain of the Shetland Islands. This breed is classified as a “working dog” and is still used to herd sheep and cattle. I’m not sure how great a herder Buffy will be. She has just discovered her feet so I think we have a ways to go.


We got Buffy home from the breeder Saturday night. She was great in the car ride home and slept for most of the hour and a half drive. We got home, took her down to go pee and got her set up for the evening.

We’ve heard many stories of how difficult the first night is for a puppy and new owners. I can imagine, Buffy is away from her brothers and sisters for the first time in a strange new world. Often times puppies will whine the entire night through but Buffy settled in rather quickly. She had a nice set-up in her crate with a sock from her breeder’s home her koala friend and a warm-blanket. The only noise we heard from Buffy was some whining around 3am. Diana got up and took her downstairs to pee and Buffy promptly did. Once Buffy was back in her crate she fell right back to sleep and slept until around 7am.

Sunday morning we started house-training Buffy. Diana and I decided to base our training methods on Dr. Ian Dunbar’s approach. He was one of the first proponents of using positive reinforcement over negative reinforcement in training dogs. His training methods focus on creating opportunities to catch the puppy doing things right (which is a great approach when teaching students).Dunbar’s method is to take the puppy to go pee and/or poo every hour. The may not go every time you go out but being consistent gives the puppy many opportunities to go.

To prevent the puppy from going inside the puppy spends time either being watched or in a crate. A puppy will not pee or poo in his or her crate in an effort to keep the space clean.

There’s a lot of time going up and down the elevator (we live on the fourth floor), but Buffy is doing well. She’s only had one accident so far and is getting the groove of going outside.


We’ve only heard Buffy bark a handful of times. She has a quiet way about her. Buffy is a little timid but I think she’s just being careful. The city is a scary place for such a small puppy. There’s a lot of pedestrian, cars, trucks and the Metra commuter train. Buffy’s strategy to deal with these things when we are outside is shuffle back to me and observes from the safety of between my feet. There has been a huge different in her comfort with meeting new people and new dogs and its fun witnessing her come out of her shell.

Buffy is pretty much the cutest ball of fluff you have ever seen.

Everything she does is cute. No, not cute, but stupidly adorable. If you think she looks cute in these pictures, man in person, it's not even funny. Now even though she doesn't know any tricks and is still working on learning her name, at least she has the watching Star Trek thing down.

We've been preparing for Buffy's arrival for about 10 months and we are so excited. Diana is bursting with joy and I have a this great feeling of satisfaction. It's taken a lot of work to get to find Buffy and we've been anticipating this for almost year. Last week, when we set up Buffy's pen it really seemed empty without our special girl.

Now that Buffy is in our lives her den feels right and our lives feel so much more full. I'm tired, I haven't slept all that well worrying about Buffy. I did not get nearly as much done today as I would have liked because I was taking care of the puppy and even though I'm becoming more comfortable around Buffy, I still feel like I have know no idea what I'm doing. But the thing is I'm loving every second of the time I spend with Buffy and I'm looking forward to sharing her life as the newest member of our family.

And yes, we named her after Buffy, as in the vampire slayer. Later, I'll explain why.

Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

[talking to my brother after the 2009 Grammy’s]

Me: Geez, when did Neil Diamond’s performance at the Grammy?!? When start taking singing tips from William Shatner? This isn’t so much singing but a dramatic reading.

Neil Diamond Butchers "Sweet Caroline" At The 2009 Grammy Awards @ Yahoo! Video

Ed: Good God, that’s horrid. OKAY I took that back. This is an awesome performance. The backup singers totally over-singing the song as Neil's stage presence are AWESOME.

Now waybe I was being a little harsh in my initial analysis of his performance. I guess I was expecting his performance to be more like his earlier performances of this song, more retrospective and less of a party sing along song (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).



It was a childhood photo of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, that inspired Neil Diamond to compose “Sweet Caroline.” He revealed at her Caroline’s 50th birthday party “It [the photo] was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."


“Sweet Caroline” is about being in a moment and revealing in how good it feels. The first verse reflects how the relationships started with a sense of disbelief at how great things have become, “Who’d believe you’d come along?” The bridge focusing on that magical moment when you first touch hands with someone you love. Making this connections feels so great that Diamond explains for all to hear how great this moment feels, better then we can imagine (“good times never seem so good"), and is so amazing that it’s hard to imagine that it could feel this good again ("I’ve been inclined to believe it never would”).

What’s unique about “Sweet Caroline” is that the two parts that people like to sing the most aren’t part of the main melody: the three descending brass hits after “sweet Caroline" in the chorus," BA, BA, BAAAA!" and the repetition of “so good” after “good times never seemed so good.”

Musically the first brass note after the words “sweet Caroline” is the peak of the phrase that builds up from the pre-chorus (“hands, touching hands. . .”). The pre-chorus creates tension by slowly ascending with the sustained notes. This energy travels through the words “sweet Caroline” to the brass that finishes the phrase completing the contour. If you imagine the chorus without the “BA, BA, BAAAA!” it would like sound incomplete so it’s only naturally that we would want to sing the whole phrase.

Now there is plenty of instrumental transition that one could sing along with after "good times never seemed so good,” but the reasons we scream out “so good, so good, so good” is because it gets to the core of what this songs means.

At the Grammy’s Neil Diamond was performing in front of a huge live audience and he’s up their on stage strolling along like he’s taking a walk in the park. He makes you believe that the performing the song on stage is one of those good times that he is singing about. "Sweet Caroline” is one of the most beloved sing along songs in American popular culture because the experience of listening to “Sweet Caroline” is itself one of those good times never seemed so good, so good, so good, SO GOOD!

Now about those sequence shirts Neil. . . yeah. . . not so good.