If it could be anyone, with whom would you like to dine with over dinner, coffee, or dessert?
I know that’s a hokey ice breaker, but it’s an intriguing question, and these are the kinds of questions I think about while going about my life. My most recent guest list includes Jackson Browne, Cher, and Bob Dylan. Why? Because their songs came on while I was listening to music and scrubbing bathrooms in my house.
My imagination plays a scene of the four of us at a corner table in a locally owned coffee shop surrounded by art, unique furnishings, privacy, comfortable chairs and a raw edged wooden table at our center. I would ask them about their lives in the year of my birth, 1964. It would have been when they were up and coming and finding and defining who they were as musicians. A time of unlimited creative energy.
In 1964, Cher was 18 years old and spiritually married to Sonny Bono. It was a tumultuous time when they launched and were marketed under multiple monikers. One of their first hits was “Baby Don’t Go” and it was the year before their biggest and most iconic hit “I Got You Babe.” They were finding out who they were as individual artists, as a duo, their name, clothes, and their personal and professional relationship all coalesced at once. My physical self was being formed at the very time they were forming their “brand.”
Jackson Browne in 1964, was 16 years old, and at the very beginning of his musical career. He was performing locally in LA, writing songs, and joining bands. That year was crucial in shaping his path as a musician and songwriter that has lasted decades.
Bobby D. was 23 years old, and at the height of his folk music icon status, and the year before he caused the biggest upset in musical history when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. Thinking about when he was the most influential folk musician in 1963 and going electric in 1965, what was the experience in the in-between of 1964. The transition, the letting go and re-creating and in the knowing of who he was, who he could be, wanted to be. What motivated him to take the hard left? His energy, self- knowledge, and creative drive coincided with my arrival on this earth.
These three musical geniuses were coming into their careers as I entered this world. It’s fair to say we were all in a state of infancy at the same time and their music has been instrumental in my life. When I listen to Cher, I am empowered by her tenacity, uniqueness, multi-talents, confidence, and persistence. When I listen to Dylan, I connect with his quirkiness, his drive to create, and I am inspired by his lyrical intellect. When I listen to Jackson Browne, my mind travels back in time to high school and I become deeply philosophical, relaxed by his soothing voice, and motivated to use my writing to connect with people and stand up for what is right and to change the world for the better. Regarding all three, I greatly admire the longevity of their careers, the body of work, and stamina to perform and tour.
My single interest in each of them would be how they kept pursuing their talent in an industry fraught with stealing the souls of artists? How did they keep their sense of self and move forward musically when rejected by their fans for not meeting their expectations or for changing or standing up for something they believed in? What do they consider the best part: songwriting, performing, re-inventing yourself, connecting with fans, collaborating with other artists, having the power to influence?
I wouldn’t ask personal questions, instead our conversation would center on their creative pursuits, how they believed in themselves enough to persist, and I would let them know how deeply grateful I am that they did.
