On such a spring night

 

I feel sort of blocked tonight.

Whenever I get to this spot, I always say that I have topics. I do. But quite often it's a case of just not having the energy to dig and expound and expand.

True.

I have a documentary on about the Laurel Canyon music scene and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds is telling Jakob Dylan that, basically, The Beatles changed his life. The lads basically were playing folk chords on "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and it impacted him.

Well, yeah, of course.

So this gives me something to watch and ponder as the day winds down.

I can listen to musicians talk for hours.

We used to have musicians come on "In Greenwich," the show that Craig Jones and I hosted on WGCH. Inevitably, the musicians would be stunned to find out that I have no musical training because they appreciated my knowledge, which I was so grateful for.

I get easily sucked into music documentaries. If there's something Beatles-related, I'm in, for instance.

In this case, the Laurel Canyon movement was pretty profound.

"The Beatles actually started folk rock in California," Tom Petty said.

That makes me happy, of course.

See what I mean? I'm sucked in now.

I have such admiration for musicians. It's the thing I wish I could have done (if I wasn't a sports broadcaster, of course).

Listening to Brian Wilson or Petty or Michelle Phillips tell stories just transfixes me.

Michelle Phillips is talking about how her then-husband John told her they had to stay in New York because the music business was there. But then he woke up her up one night and started singing...

"All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray."

To California, they went. Dreamin' all the way with "McGuinn and McGuire just a-gettin' higher in L.A., you know where that's at..."

Complete and incredible brilliance. The strong voices of Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot (Mama Cass, of course) with the songwriting of John Philips and harmonies of Michelle Phillips.

The Mamas and The Papas, of course.

So, yeah, I'm locked into this now.

I'll leave you there.

If you haven't embraced it, go check out some of the music of that era. Or rediscover it.