John Coltrane John Coltrane

I've discovered one of the drawbacks to blogging - people get itchy when you don't blog. They send you comments about how you're letting them down by creating false expectations that on a regular basis the Muse is going to shake a few leaves from the the word tree. So here goes. I've been reading a book by the Times (New York, of course, those other newspapers that call themselves ..........Times are only pretenders) music critic , Ben Ratliff. When I began to read it, I decided to listen to the music that he references in his discussion. Being that I've obsessively collected Coltrane recordings since 1967 (more about my beginning with Trane later), I have most of the music he refers to, some of which I've listened to regularly over the past 41(yikes) years and some of which I've played very occasionally. I started out in the early 50's and am now listening to music from 1965, a year during which Coltrane came close to lifting the Earth off the Turtle's back musically(in fact, he may have accomplished that feat, but in 1965 my college boy beer party spirit would not have recognized the phenomenon because I was busy growing my Beatle bush and shaking my head in a Liverpoolian manner as I uncorked my dancing  Dionysian soul. New Year's Eve 1967, I was sitting with my lonesome self, a pint of scotch and some herb rolled in Marlboro cigarettes that I had emptied of tobacco (that's what Catholic college boys from New York City did since they were still in the early stages of losing their herbal virginity).   To be continued....maybe