Fooling Yourself

This is a song that I have loved since it came out in 1977, but there was always one line that eluded me. I guess I could have looked it up on the internet years ago, but by listening to the live versions of Tommy Shaw singing his tune, I finally figured it out. And now I don't have to sing, "You can hide little lamb, put your care in your yam."

(Relax... easy.)

You see the world through your cynical eyes

You're a troubled young man, I can tell

You've got it all in the palm of our hand

But your hands wet with sweat and your head needs a rest

And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it

You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it.

Why must you be such an angry young man

When your future looks quite bright to me

And how can there be such a sinister plan

That could hide such a man, such a caring young man   <-- the elusive line.

[Chorus]

And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it

You're killing yourself if you don't believe it

Get up! (Get up!) Get back on your feet.

You're the one they can beat and you know it.

Come on! (Come on!) Let's see what you've got.

Just take your best shot and don't blow it.

Day 81: Today I discovered Deadland Ritual

I'm on a trail, a path... if you will.

Determined to bring some joy into my life by being able to make a joyous noise, I bought a bass guitar. This was on Friday, May 29, 2020. Combing through Facebook Marketplace, I found a college student who wanted to sell her almost new bass because she's not playing it anymore and is now into playing the cello. Cool! The black 2018 Fender Bronco bass is in Westlake Village... it's an hour and a half drive.

I bring the bass home, inspect it and immediately plug it into my Crate 15W guitar practice amp. And then, I think, am I even supposed to be doing that? It's a bass! You can, but you have to be careful and adjust the equalizer to get a clean tone. And instinctively, I did that. My ear tells me I'm making noise, but it's not the full, rich sound a bass guitar is supposed to sound like.

And then, how to play, how to play, how to play. I'm consuming the stuff that bass players are publishing about their work, their rigs, their style. I'm finding info online from:

Carol Kaye - www.CarolKaye.com (who has teaching tools for sale online. God bless her<3); 

Leland Skylar -  On Youtube (who is giving all who so choose to watch his videos a kind of fly on-the-wall perspective into some of the music he's worked on and artists he's worked with over his career);

And then I begin to remember the bands who I used to listen to as a kid growing up in a house with little joy. And I was listening to Queen (John Deacon), Black Sabbath (Geezer Butler), Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones), ELO (Kelly Groucutt), The Eagles (Timothy B. Schmit), and Heart.

Now I'm looking for a solution to a problem and that problem is I have two electric guitars and one 15Z practice amp and I don't want to get separate amps for each one because: 1) I don't have the space, and 2) it's expensive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5B5r8A9dOw

Summer 2020 or How I Spent My Quarantined Staycation

I've been home gaining weight

Baking so many brownies, banana bread and sometimes cake

I have cleaned everything, and I mean everything more than once 

I'm organizing and shredding old paperwork. 

I created a box for recycling and a box for selling things on ebay.

Happy birthday to me; bought a gently used short-scale bass and a new bass amp.

My cat has me on a routine. Get up and follow her to the kitchen to feed her, nap, pet-snacks, nap, brush, nap, nap some more. Snuggle. Nap, feed her again, and she's in bed by 8PM. 

I'm one who can't go to bed until 10PM or so because I don't sleep that much. Or I'm not getting enough physical activity to sleep more than 8 hours. Or both.