The other day I got an email that contained what was purported to be a quote from Cicero. It seemed suspect because it contained a line about welfare moochers bringing down the nation.
I looked it up, and guess what I found? There are no recorded quotes from Cicero, or just about anybody around 55 BC. The quote used was lifted from the book, ‘A Pillar of Iron ‘,(1965), Taylor Caldwell's fictionalized account of the life of the senator, then rewritten to promote the notion that social programs are destroying the land of the free.
This morning I was reading and article in the New York Times that addresses the issue of misattributed quotations, Falser Words Were Never Spoken by Brian Morton. In the article, he examines the authenticity on quotes on coffee cups, bumper stickers, and other places that are used to make a statement or promote an idea.
Stax Music Academy
Stax lives on in young Memphis musicians.
I read this in the Wall Street Journal and it brought back a lot of memories.
It mentioned in the article that one of the differences between Stax and Motown was that Stax had black and white musicians working together to make their soul music hits.
I never thought of it that way during my experience with Stax. For me it was all about the music. I produced and co-wrote an album with Joe Shamwell, at a studio in Jackson, Mississippi that Fred Mitchell and I conceived of and built to record some Mississippi musicians using the latest high tech 12 track Scully recording equipment.
Joe and I met as a result of our late night radio shows and a love for music. He was the “Soul Ranger” at the black music station, and I did my thing on Mississippi’s first FM Rock station. (See WJDX-FM). He had some ideas for songs that we developed and recorded as a contemporary album we called, “Natural Blackness”, ( It made perfect sense in 1968 ).
Joe had written some songs with David Porter for Stax artists, and after a phone call, we were invited to come to Memphis, bring the album, and stay at the original Holiday Inn on the river while we were in town. Issac Hayes had just got his own record label and wanted our album to be one of the first ones signed to it.
While we were there, I had a great time hanging out with some of my favorite musicians, sharing songwriting, recording, and performing experiences. Joe and I were chauffeured around Memphis with Issac Hayes as our tour guide, which included his favorite soul food restaurant and local music hot spots.
Joe and Issac are both gone now and the Natural Blackness album is all but forgotten, but reading the article in WSJ, brought those times back to life for me and how the folks at Stax made me feel like I was a part of that wonderful musical family.
Some Flowers Hanging On
Though the sun has baked away the bodacious bounty of beautiful blossoms and budding booms, there are still a few robust roses scattered around the Treehouse grounds.
The days are getting shorter. Tomorrow will be 2 minutes and 33 seconds shorter than today, and tonight at 8:55pm the temperature has already dropped to a chilly 83.1 degrees. Tomorrows forecast high temp is only 90. The next thing you know, I will have to wear socks with my sandals.
Whatever will this bug do when there are no more roses to hang out on?
Luckily for me there are multitudes of fascinating objects to photograph around here, no matter what time of year it is. Living here is nourishing to my soul in many uplifting ways. I feel very fortunate to be who and where I am.
Today’s Relatively Appropriate Song;
I Will Do Something
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