Doobie Brother is takin’ it to the Hallmark stores

Published 11/29/05

When Michael McDonald was takin’ it to the streets and takin’ his Doobie Brothers up the rock and roll charts some 30 years ago, who’d have thought he would someday be crooning seasonal favorites on a Hallmark holiday release.

Well, some day is here. “Through Many Winters: A Christmas Album,” hit retail a few weeks ago and McDonald is taking it to listeners—like me—whose heads still ring with tunes like “Minute By Minute,” “What A Fool Believes,” “Real Love” and “It Keeps You Runnin’.” Okay, and for regular folk who just happen to like traditional Christmas songs.

But not your usual, typical, traditional carols. Ex Doobie McDonald crosses the normal boundaries of Christmas music with his own unique arrangements of holiday classics.

The CD is available exclusively through Hallmark Gold Crown stores and not at the vinyl hangouts where you used to buy Doobie Brothers LPs and tapes. All songs feature that instantly recognizable voice of the artist usually known as “the blue-eyed soul singer.” Of McDonald, Rolling Stone once said, “This man could sing the New York telephone book and break your heart.”

A five-time Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter and composer of the aforementioned hits, McDonald is yet to rely on the lyrics of the white pages in a career that, as vivid memory has it, took off my senior year of college. That’s when a guy who followed all things rock and roll came down the hall of my dorm and announced that Michael McDonald had left Steely Dan to sing lead for the Doobies. Oh. I’d never heard of Michael McDonald.

But I did when McDonald, after joining the southern boogie rock band in 1977, turned them into a heavily syncopated soul oriented group with jazz and R&B inflections. Transforming the Doobies into a hit making machine, he became one of the biggest voices of the rock generation,

When the Doobies gig ended in 1982, McDonald went solo and recorded memorable singles such as “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near),” “I Gotta Try” and “Sweet Freedom.” Then there were the duets where he shared the spotlight with James Ingram (“Yah Mo Be There”) and with Patti LaBelle “On My Own”).

You may have seen McDonald recently on PBS, performing ’60s Motown songs. That’s because, in recent years, he’s returned to the music that inspired him originally. Not only has McDonald performed a collection of Motown cover songs, but he’s recorded them on the Motown label. The first project, “Motown,” earned two Grammy nominations. Motown 2 was certified Gold within months of its release last year.

This year, in a fundraiser for Katrina victims, McDonald joined a band of other artists to record “The Heart of America,” which they sang before Game Three of the World Series.

This past Sunday night McDonald was takin’ it—his new holiday CD-- to Emeril Live on the Food Network, where he played selections from “Through the Many Winters” with Emeril’s kitchen band.

In addition to familiar Christmas fare, the CD features a couple of new songs by McDonald, including the title song, co-written with his wife Amy Holland, a centerpiece song which urges listeners to look for a sign in the heavens during the bleakest of winters.

The second McDonald composition, “Christmas On The Bayou” is based on a French-Cajun children’s song entitled “St. Nicholas.” This fun song finds McDonald playing Cajun accordion along with acoustic guitar and bass.

If any song showcases the McDonald cords, it’s “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with its jazz and R&B touches.

“Come, O Come Emanuel/What Month Was Jesus Born” is a blend of reggae with an African American spiritual that contains a fun call and response with a soulful choir.

In a duet with Holland, McDonald then changes the scenery, moving into a Tennessee mountain setting, and the century, with the 14th century Celtic carol, “Wexford Carol,” which begins “Good people all, this Christmas-time/Consider well and bear in mind/What our good God for us has done/In sending his beloved Son…” What with its dulcimer and fiddler, polished L.A. pop this ain’t. But hey, this is Michael minus the Doobies.

Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that as a Michael McDonald devotee, I’m predisposed to buy and favorably review.

What a fool believes, he sees.

Rhyming around on the night before Thanksgiving

Published 11/22/05

I’m not sure what it is about the holidays but they seem to inspire in me a severe case of Clement Moore envy. When my poetry students are having rhymer’s block, I tell them that cheap imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Going all the way back to my high school days, I have flattered Mr. Moore with titles such as “Twas the Night Before Halloween,” “Twas the Night Before Labor Day” and “Twas the Night Before the Fourth of July” (which would have been more simply titled, “Twas the Evening of July 3rd””). Then there was “Twas the Night Before New Year’s (sometimes known as, “Twas December 31st”), “Twas the Night Before Mother’s Day” and “Twas The Night Before Valentine’s Day” (or “Twas An Evening of Frantic Shopping").

I guess it’s the fact that this holiday poem is just a sitting duck when it comes to parody, pastiche and cheap imitation. All the writer has to do is pull the trigger—and fill in a few blanks.

“Twas the Night” is a big fat target because it draws upon one of the most endearing folk fables of our time. You have the anticipation of a mythical messianic figure the night before an apocalypse of gorging and giving, you have the literal coming of the long expected figure who, as it turns out, “looks like a peddler just opening his pack,” and then you have the disappearance of the hero who lays his finger up his nose or aside of his nose or something like that, his mission complete.

This week’s holiday, a universal harvest celebration which the pilgrims Americanized in the 1600s, easily lends itself to a modern version of “Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving”…

’Twas the night before Thanksgiving
When all through the house
Not a creature was stirring…
And here’s the rub: it’s the night before opening day of the eating season and nobody’s stirrin’ nuthin’. Not even the figgy pudding.

The next verse is key because it’s here that the poet introduces the Christ figure, or in the case of Thanksgiving, the chef figure. It could be the anticipation of The Galloping Gourmet or Julia Childs or even Emeril. Or you could give the poem a protagonist who provides interest-added…

The pots and pans were hung by the kitchen with care,
In hopes that Martha Stewart soon would be there.
Yo, Martha! New line of ankle bracelets?
For she’s the jolly good felon…

Are you with me? Of course, you can always pull out your poetic license while composing poetry…

The children were nestled all snug in their futons,
What danced in their heads were visions of barbecued turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, cornbread sourdough stuffing, cheddar biscuits, pumpkin pie and caramel apple salad complete with…croutons

I like to give my poems a regional and local angle…

And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my ND cap,
Had just settled our brains for a late November nap...
If Martha’s still under house arrest, we’ll take the family to the Toast.


…While praising my employer in anticipation of my holiday bonus…

When out on the lawn there arose a noise of suspicion
I knew it was delivery of my Herald Bulletin Special Four Color Thanksgiving Edition.

This next verse has always intrigued me because it appears that the narrator is becoming completely unhinged…

Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash, ripped out the screens and dropped two floors with a crash.
Hmm. Must have been the sampling of all that sugar-added cranberry sauce the night before Thanksgiving…

Then comes the verse that speaks to “everyman”—or everywoman. I mean, how many of us go outside at night, stand in the backyard, dream about other places in time and space, and look up at the moon? On the night before Thanksgiving, we might see…

On the moon of the stuffed turkey breast, I saw new fallen giblet gravy, praline sweet potatoes, baked apple pecan dressing, candied butternut squash, pumpkin cheese cake, apple cider cinnamon bread…

Speaking of becoming unhinged. That’ll add luster to those durn mid day objects below. So if you get inspired to do some rhyme over the holidays, do like me. Just mimic the master and copy the classic.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good meal!

Republic is reminder that we need ancient insights

Published 11/15/05

When I drive down the streets of this town on trash pickup day, which come to think of it, is most days, I’m struck by this community’s interest in that ancient Greek philosopher, Plato. Everywhere I look, I see blue curbside bins on wheels with the title of his most popular bestseller, “Republic.”

I don’t see garbage bins imprinted with “Apology,” “Symposium” or “Crito”—titles of his other texts—but I do see a lot of Republics.

Rolling our Republics out of the garage and to the end of the driveway is a worthy exercise because it makes us think—at least once a week—about justice, wisdom, courage and the beauty of residential solid waste management in an ideal society.

Which is, more or less, what Plato’s Republic is all about. Poet that he was, Plato knew better than to address such topics in a boorish manner. In fact, he uses drama, a dialogue actually, in which his characters burrow through topics like metaphysics, mythology, religion, art, morality, parenthood, psychology, education, arts and entertainment, feminism and private property on their way to the perfect republic. As in several of his dialogue-based books, Plato’s central character is his hero and mentor, Socrates.

A little historical interlude here: Plato was indeed a published poet in Athens around 400 B.C. until he met Socrates at which point he had a philosophical-religious experience and became a full time student of Professor Socrates. Plato then devoted his life to putting Socrates’ ideas down on paper, something his teacher never bothered to do before his teaching career was cut short with a fatal cup of hemlock. When Plato wasn’t writing dialogues, he was launching his Academy, a prestigious school in Athens that would eventually serve as the model for the modern, western university. Of course, at the Academy, Plato taught…philosophy.

Although the conversations in the Republic cover everything but global warming, the book ultimately draws up a blueprint for an ideal city-state, asking the question, “Must we not acknowledge that in each of us there are the same principles and habits which there are in the State; and that from the individual they pass into the State?”

Plato looks at the soul of the republic by looking at the souls within the republic. In one recurring theme, Plato seems to ask: “Is there a connection between being good and being happy?”
It’s tough to distinguish between the opinions of Plato and Socrates. But this much is apparent: Plato has written a masterpiece in which Socrates is his mouthpiece. Another of their favorite themes is how the ruler of the ideal republic should be a…philosopher. Okay, so it has its spin.
Despite its bias, the Republic is probably the single most influential book in the history of philosophy. As one scholar put it, the Republic’s influence on 2000 years of Western thought is eclipsed only by the Bible.

Of course, now I’m thinking not just of Plato but of Mark Twain who said that a classic is a book that everyone praises but no one reads.

I, too, have only read parts of the Republic, like the cave part. Remember the cave analogy? That’s where Plato suggests that we are like prisoners in a cave watching shadows on the wall until we can get out into the enlightenment and escape the limitations of our everyday senses. He also differentiates between the “dumpster” and “dumpsterness.” Say what?

Anyway…seeing how there are daily reminders of the Republic everywhere, I propose that this community choose the Republic for its next town-wide read-off. Peter Kreeft of Boston College says of the book, “Plato sings philosophy.” This is a song we could sing.

Author Will Durant wrote, “These dialogues…were written by Plato for the general reading public of the day: by their conversational method, their lively war of pros and cons…they were explicitly adapted to the understanding of the man who must taste philosophy as an occasional luxury, and who is compelled by the brevity of life to read as he who runs may read.”

Philosophy as just an occasional luxury, the brevity of life, the frustration of having to read while on the run, and our collective need for Republic instruction is what I’m thinking about every Thursday evening when I drag my dumpster to the road.

Internet changes the life of another innocent man

Published 11/8/05

My life was forever changed by an e-mail I received last week. In fact, I’m still in a state of shock and heading toward the land of awe. I’m speechless, except to say, “Thank God for the Internet.”

Mind you, I have been asked to keep this confidential. But I think there’s something to be learned here about the lottery of life. Because you just never know when your number will come up. As the Zen master said, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

And this story begins at the end of last week.

Er, maybe it was actually the middle of the week when I received an unexpected message from an account officer with the Royal Bank Trust of Nigeria. I knew it was important because the entire e-mail message was written in capital letters. It was slugged, “STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL” and signed by “EMMANUEL MBA.” (I think this means Emmanuel has a business background.) Anyway, I knew immediately that this guy was very important.

As it turns out, Emmanuel is the personal account manager of John Mark Jensen Sr., an oil merchant who was born and educated in America before moving abroad to work for the government of Nigeria. That is, Emmanuel “was” the personal account manager of Jensen Sr. According to “EMMANUEL MBA,” Jensen Sr. died in a tragic motor accident a few years ago. But the story gets better. There had been no success by the Royal Bank Trust in locating next of kin as beneficiary. Emmanuel said the government had no reason to believe that the oil man was married or had children. At the time of his death, Jensen Sr., customer of the Royal Bank Trust, had a balance of $55.5 million.

Apparently, the reason for Emmanuel’s urgency and his capital letters concerned the fact that the chairman and board of directors at the Royal Bank were about to declare the funds unclaimed and have them donated to the “ARMS ARMUNITION TRUST FUNDS,” which, according to Emmanuel, would “FURTHER ENHANCE THE CAUSE OF WAR IN AFRICA AND THE WORLD IN GENERAL.” Now I’m not sure what any of this meant and I’ve never heard of an “armunition” but none of this sounded very good. Besides, Emmanuel seemed to be preoccupied about the world in general and my bank account in specific.

But here’s the kicker, er, the business proposal. He wanted permission to list me as John Mark Jensen Sr.’s next of kin! Can you believe that? Me, Jack Williams, citizen of Anderson, Ind., in the US of A, and a man with an Internet address as John Mark Jensen Sr.’s beneficiary, the recipient of the oil man’s savings!!! Emmanuel assured me that “THE BUSINESS IS 100% RISK FREE.”

Now, all I have to do is provide Mr. E with an open account into which the Royal Bank Trust account officer will transfer a cool, unclaimed $55.5 mil, minus the necessary fees. Also, he’s also urging me to meet him personally in Lagos, Nigeria, so that we can talk about “LOGISTICS AND MODALITIES AND DISBURSEMENT RATIOS TO SUIT BOTH PARTIES WITHOUT ANY CONFUSION.” But what’s a little travel expense when your checking account is about to explode before your very eyes. Oh yeah, I can’t make arrangements with Emmanuel personally but have to call his son Abba at 00 228 02 51 33.

I guess this is the number I’ve been waiting for. And if my Nigeria deal falls through, I learned this weekend that a claims agent with the Santa Lucia Security Company was “PLEASED TO INFORM ME THAT MY E-MAIL ADDRESS ATTACHED TO TICKET NUMBER 653-908-321-675 DREW LUCKY STAR NUMBERS 34-32-90-43-32 WHICH WON ME A LUMP SUM PAYOUT OF ONE MILLION EUROS IN THE EURO MILLIONS LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL.”

So this is what we mean when we talk about how the Internet is changing our lives.