ANOTHER TRAIN LEAVES THE STATION

The train leaves the station to waving crowds.

Or it leaves quietly.

Either way, it’s your train and you’re on it.

It’s all good as long as you realize everyone else rides their own train too, on their own schedule.

Not your schedule, not mine.

Who’s next?

I know who isn’t next. Not you, and not me.

As a teenager I didn’t have a musical favorite, which feels odd to say now as it felt then.

I liked Elvis, but shouldn’t I have a favorite band? A favorite sound? It was the early 70’s.

Everyone had a favorite band.

Beatles? Stones? Zeppelin?

Three Dog Night? The Dead? The Doobies?

I had a friend with a hundred eight tracks in 1972. Okay, maybe fifty. Some record club thing.

He loaned them to me for a month.

After going through the tapes hour after hour, day after day, I discovered I was a Crosby, Stills, Nash fan, along with Pink Floyd.

Who knew?

Not a fan in the “I’ve got to see them, I don’t care, I’ll die if I don’t see them,” kind of fan-ship.

More of listening for their ‘influence in other music’ kind of fan.

To be more accurate, I looked for the Beatles influence in their music, since they influenced everyone first.

Music Plays As The Train Leaves

At the end of 1976 I lived in Springfield, Oregon, riding my bike to the University of Oregon campus for my sophomore year.

The G.I. Bill helped.

One day in August, 1977 I rode up to the house and saw the landlord’s cat sleeping on the porch.

I went in the side door and turned on the radio. An Elvis song.

Another Elvis song, then another, and another.

Go Elvis, right?

Then the death announcement.

Elvis? Dead?

I opened the front door to let the cat in.

It didn’t move.

Instead of slinking through the cracked open door, nothing.

I’m thinking of the Eagles song “Train Leaves Here This Morning.”

Without CSN and CSNY there wouldn’t be Eagles.

And without a voice like David Crosby’s, there wouldn’t have been a CSN, or CSNY.

If CSN were The Beatles, Crosby would have been George.

I like George.

Now they’re both on the train.

But, if time makes a difference while we’re gone 
Tell me now, and I won’t be hanging on
There’s a train leaves here this morning
And I don’t know, what I might be on

Today David Crosby’s friends and fans celebrate the 81 years he lived.

Even better are the words celebrating him as a musical genius inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Twice.

He will be remembered as long as people remember musical careers and achievements.

And recorded music.

Which is going on one hundred and sixty-odd years.

He’s got a long run ahead of him.

It’s All Right

Is there’s a better rock train than the Traveling Wilburys?

Well, it’s all right even if you’re old and gray
Well, it’s all right, you still got something to say
Well, it’s all right, remember to live and let live
Well, it’s all right, the best you can do is forgive

Well, it’s all right, riding around on the breeze
Well, it’s all right, if you live the life you please
Well, it’s all right, even if the sun don’t shine
Well, it’s all right, we’re going to the end of the line

I think about that college cat on days like this.