DECEMBER 8

December 8 always scrambles up my mind.

It has been 32 years and it still scrambles up my mind. I will never accept the reality of it. On December 8, 1980 a useless piece of crap put four bullets into John Lennon's body and killed him.  Using a gun to cut down a man who worked tirelessly to make the world aware that we all share our humanity and that it makes so much more sense to love than to hate. To live than to kill.

John Lennon was a man who inspired people. He gave people something to believe in, he made their lives softer by singing to them, making them laugh, encouraging them to think. Here was this larger than life man talking to you on your level and helping you to forget about the severe emotional limits a normal existence can impose.

He fought the government, he fought narrow mindedness, he fought against a lack of hope. He made his life a controversial thing to fight for what he believed in.

Not just for himself. For the world.

He sincerely wanted people to live in peace. Without fear. The sincerity of that message came from his heart and you would have to be dead to have missed it.

He talked to us, not down to us. One of my favorite videos of him, in 1980, shows him walking and asking "How are you doing? Did you make it through the seventies all right?" he goes on from there and you get the message that we are all getting older together, we are going through stuff, we are learning and adjusting. You feel like you are walking with him, no pretensions at all. I wish to God I could have had one conversation with that man.

Chapman came up for parole again this past August and was denied. The parole board said: "Therefore, despite your positive efforts while incarcerated, your release at this time would greatly undermine respect for the law and tend to trivialize the tragic loss of life which you caused as a result of this heinous, unprovoked, violent, cold and calculated crime."

They got it right.

 John Lennon was a Beatle. A leader. An inspiration. A sweet soul and creative innovator.  An influence on my generation  in a way that cannot be overstated. Not having him around for the last 32 years has left a hole in me for 32 years. A hole that no one can ever fill.

John Lennon would have been 72 on October 9. And he would have still been challenging us and making us uncomfortable to docilely accept the cruel world we live in.



December 8 is also Jim Morrison's birthday. Morrison is another on my list of people who inspired me. His approach to life was to push everything to it's limits for the sake of experience. He was inspired by William Blake who wrote: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Morrison himself said: "I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown."

Both believed there was a lot more to our minds than we know and that what we don't know holds us back. I believe that as well. They believed that if you assaulted your mind with experiences and avoided predictability and routine like the plague, you will break through to an honest understanding of who you are and you will be much more engaged with life.

Morrison devoted himself to life experimentation and rode that approach to an early grave. He did more living in those 27 years than I have in 58, and learned more because of it and contributed more to the world's experience. Well worth the sacrifice.

He left behind rocking, sometimes dark, sensitive, philosophically informed music and beautiful poetry. The Doors music was so different than other rock music that it hit me right between the eyes. All kinds of references to explore and learn from. And an underlying darkness that exposed the harsh underbelly of life.

He turned me on to Blake and to many other philosophers and poets who contributed to my point of view, my opinion of how life should be lived, what it should mean.

Jim Morrison would have been 69 today.



December 8 is also Gregg Allman's birthday. I cherish this man and The Allman Brothers Band.

The Beatles woke me up to a new philosophy of life and blew my head apart with beautiful, lyrical, intelligent, challenging music. Jim Morrison took that music and made it deeper, more poetic; he also added another layer to my evolving philosophy of life. The Allman Brothers came along with an attitude that got right in the face of hypocrisy and they took me so deeply into the roots of the music I loved that I am still learning from them today.

Gregg and Duane took rock into a new old direction, inspired by the old blues masters and putting their own spin on this music that more than any other comes from the soul and from pain and from being lost and expresses it in a powerful way.

I would look at the credits on their albums and realize they didn't write a lot of the songs. That lead me to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker and Hubert Sumlin and Pinetop Perkins and many, many more.

The love and care and respect with which The Allman Brothers approached the blues gave me a new love. The blues vibrate my soul and wrench my heart more directly than any music I have ever heard.

Gregg's voice is distinctive. His voice is the blues. I have seen him in concert anywhere from 25 to 30 times, solo, and with The Brothers. His voice brings me to life and stirs raw emotion in me.

Every single time.

The Allman Brothers put rock and roll attitude right in your face. They were tough and talented, they took risks, they believed in what they were doing and stayed true to it. Record company schmucks tried to get them to change their style, get more poppy, write more hits. The Brothers told them to kiss their ass and kept doing what they were doing.

Which partially explains the fierce loyalty of their fans. Their fans are a community just like The Dead's. I have been at concerts where I talked to twenty year olds who love this band and follow them closely. And I have talked to many grey beards like myself whose lives have been made richer with the soundtrack The Allman Brothers provide. Their integrity is translated in the music and connects to true music lovers regardless of age.

Gregg has been looking frail lately. He has had a number of health problems that have left him weak. This disturbs me greatly. Duane died in 1971, ripping apart some of the soul of this band. But they survived and evolved to excel. Gregg is fighting back, bouncing back, but you can't help but consider his mortality, especially when you think about the lifestyle he has lived.

When he goes, it won't be The Allman Brothers anymore. I have no idea how the band will handle that and truthfully I cannot think about it. Gregg has given me so many smiles, so many tears, so much exhilaration, so much soul deep blues beauty that he has made my life softer, he has given me relief and inspiration.

Since 1969. That is a heavy duty gift.

Gregg Allman is 65 today. Happy Birthday, Gregg and I am hoping for at least 30 more.

It pains me to talk about John Lennon and Jim Morrison in the past tense. It pains me to worry about Gregg Allman's health.

But that is where I am at in my life. Thank God I had these three guys to smooth things out a little for me and to keep alive the low flame of hope that continues to burn in my soul.