Friday Pick Six – best live rock albums of the 70s

As was tradition at my now defunct website and subsequent move to here, I will present a weekly pick of six songs or albums. Why six? I don’t know.

These YouTube videos link to the artistsYouTube feed, so they may not work in all regions.

Back in the Stoned Seventies, bands had a strict process. One or two years (but mostly one) in the studio, then tour in support. Bands still do this, but it is the era of the mega concert.

Bands releasing albums is in decline, too. I am as guilty as anybody of just streaming playlists. In fact, the only time I listen to albums is when I play vinyl, getting in touch with those bands from the analog age again

The seventies gave you a lot of opportunities to see your favorites and usually for not a lot of money. The arena rock of the decade played out in smoke filled coliseums around the country.

I spent many a night contributing to that smoke, jamming to some great band. I proudly subscribed to the sex, drugs, and rock & roll lifestyle.

Now, in fairness, the drugs part of that equation often drowned out memories of the rock & roll. Sometimes the sex, too. Fortunately, the live album was always out there, whether from the record companies or bootlegged.

It didn’t replace those nights when you saw a show that was perfect. It did conjure those memories. It does for me. I still attend a lot of concerts and I have seen shows that were amazing. However, nothing will ever replace those smoke filled arenas of my misspent youth.

Without further ado, here are six stellar examples of seventies arena rock presented in no particular order.

Continue reading “Friday Pick Six – best live rock albums of the 70s”

It’s not writers block exactly

I have pumped out more words than ever this year. I completely rewrote a novel and a short story, plus other stories I have been doodling with. The last two weeks? My daily word count has dropped precipitously and I can’t seem to get back in the groove.

Is it writers block? I don’t know. I have tons of story ideas still, but writing them down has been like pulling teeth. I have been fighting a migraine for these weeks, so maybe that is part of the problem.

So, here I am staring at various documents. I am trying to focus on writing and not focus on social media or stare at my website stats. It’s like the words are there, but I can’t get them onto the page.

I saw where someone was told that if they didn’t write 15k words a month, the writers group they belonged to would drop them. Does it really matter how many words you write a day? Fifteen-thousand is only five-hundred words a day. I say ‘only’ when I can’t push out 90 words a day right now.

Maybe my brain is tired. I have written almost 64k words in the last six weeks. Maybe I am focusing too much on output. I need to write, but maybe it’s not a quantity issue but quality.

Maybe I should get back to work instead of whining about it in a blog post.

Saturday Morning

Sunrises and Hope

I have always been an early riser. Years of living a agricultural life precondtioned me to be up before dawn. As a teenager, I was up before sunrise to tend to the animals and other chores. It was then I learned the joy of quiet mornings and peaceful sunrises.

It feels like a moment to reflect on the coming day even as I am overwhelmed with memory. It is the moment of the day where all is quiet.

I live with chronic pain, so mornings are also the time I am in the least amount of pain. By evening, my head, neck, and back are screaming. In the morning, I have hope that I can get much accomplished. It doesn’t always turn out that way, but I always have hope.

That is the problem with big plans and reality. I plan to accomplish things, but pain always has other ideas. Some people learn to live with their pain and lead fairly normal lives. I blame myself for not being able to accomplish the same.

I don’t think people talk enough about the guilt people with chronic pain feel. This is compounded when that pain has disabled you. You ask yourself why you aren’t more productive. Billions of people manage to live their days in pain and still getting things done, but you are unable to even get up from your chair.

I often sit and kick myself as being weak. Part of that is that we are often brought up to believe that our worth is measured in what we do. It is also true that the world doesn’t often see hidden disabilities. I may have a day where I am basically non-functional, but I still feel like I am doing something wrong.

This is especially true when it comes to finances. For most of my life, I have been a financial object for my family. Now, I wake up with no energy for the day ahead sometimes. I can’t even shower, let alone go to a job. Still, every morning I watch the sunrise and hope today will be different.

I want to do everything I can. I want to be productive. I want to look at something and say, yes, I can do that. I want to help any number of causes. I want to be able to walk to the library. I want to be able to drive myself to the doctor. In short, I want a normal life.

I don’t have a normal life, though. Some things I will never be able to do again. That hastens my dissatisfaction with my circumstance. Sure, I would love to be successful writer and maybe make enough money to help out. That may never happen. I may spend the rest of my life between moments of pain and agony. At least I have the sunrise and a little hope.

My Creative Commons License

I license my photographs under a CC License that allows for non commercial use. You may reuse, modify, and redistribute them any way you wish, but you need attribute me, Jay R. White and maybe a link back to my site.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

I license my writing under CC license that does allow you redistribute with attribution for non-commercial uses. You can not modify my stories, but you are free to share if you deem it worthy.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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