Michel Pagliaro – "Some Sing, Some Dance" (1971)

Now that I know you could be untrue

Now that I know I could hold you

Well, I do  . . . need to hold you

In the last 2 or 3 lines, I told you about a letter to “Ask Amy” – a syndicated newspaper advice column – that I recently read. 

Here’s another recent “Ask Amy” inquiry:

Dear Amy: 

I was dating a 45-year-old man.  He was married for 20 years, had been legally separated for four years and divorced now for six months.

He seems to think it is normal for him and his ex-wife to sleep together naked when they visit each other, which they do almost every month.  He told me that my objections reflected my narrow American view, and he said their relationship was not sexual.

He is Canadian.

Sexy Canadian dude

Call me crazy, but that just did not seem to be normal behavior, regardless of cultural differences.

Your thoughts?

Not Crazy?

Here’s Amy’s response:

Dear Not Crazy: 

Your guy was accusing you of “narrow American values.”  So let’s say he’s telling the truth.  Perhaps he really is merely resting his eyes while naked.  Whatever they are up to, I would say it’s highly irregular.

This dude may have been Canadian, but regardless of his nationality (or his religion, or his occupation, or the color of his hair – assuming he still has his hair) he is first and foremost a male.  Given that, I can guaran-damn-tee you that he was not “merely resting his eyes.”

*     *     *     *     *

Amy seems to have overlooked the elephant in the room, which was how in the hell did “Not Crazy” find out that the Canadian dude was sleeping naked with his ex-wife?

Even sexier Canadian dude

It’s possible that she followed him, peeked in the bedroom window, and caught them in flagrante delicto.  But I doubt it.  

My guess is that our Canadian friend up and told her what he was doing with his ex. 

In which case, he might actually be telling the truth.  (Otherwise, he would surely have kept his big Canadian piehole shut.)

*     *     *     *     *

Michel Pagliaro – his full name is Michel Armand Guy Pagliaro – was a sexy beast back in the day:

Today, not so much:

“Some Sing, Some Dance” – parts of which sound exactly like an early Lennon-McCartney song – was a hit for Pagliaro in 1971.  I first heard it in the summer of 1980 on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes” radio show.

Click here to listen to “Some Sing, Some Dance.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Holly and the Italians – "Tell That Girl to Shut Up" (1979)

You better tell that girl to shut up

You better tell that girl I’m gonna beat her up

I’m not sure why I still subscribe to the Washington Post.

There’s no sports section to speak of any more (because there’s no sports).  

It’s not for the comic strips.  The Post has no fewer than 83, but I only read one of them (Dilbert).

And there’s nothing of real value in the front section – just a lot of opinion and Monday-morning quarterbacking. 

That leaves the advice columns. 

*     *     *     *     *

Amy Dickinson succeeded Ann Landers as the Chicago Tribune’s advice columnist.  Today her “Ask Amy” column is carried by 150 newspapers, including the Post.

Here’s a recent inquiry from one of her readers:

Dear Amy: 

I live within one of the most extremist liberal bastions in the country.  Men here are minimized, ordered to the rear and, even more often, told precisely what we should think and do.

I am an active 63-year-old guy and have worked hard to get where I am.  I wish to enjoy my life to the fullest by riding motorcycles up and down the coast and sea kayaking in open water.

Amy Dickinson of "Ask Amy" fame

Fortunately, I often am joined by much younger “Barbie doll” types.  I have invited many women my age to join me, but I am hatefully told that I am an old fool to be seen with these much younger women.

Why do I have to live my life at the speed of smell just to satisfy these old, progressive, blue-haired biddies marching toward the end of their lives by becoming bingo captains at their church?

Is acting young and refusing to slow down to please the liberal slug-masters of my community wrong?

Living My Life

(“Speed of smell”?  I have never heard that term before – have you?  I assume he’s saying that the speed of smell is quite slow compared to the speed of sound or the speed of light, and that he has no desire to live his life at such a slow speed.)

Here’s Amy’s reply:

Dear Living My Life: 

As long as you stereotype people the way you do, you’re going to get stereotyped, too.

You are way too invested in and angry about other people’s opinions about you.  In fact, due to the volume and pitch of your protest, I can only assume that on some level you fear you wouldn’t be able to keep up with the social and intellectual challenges of being with a woman in your age group.

*     *     *     *     *

Speaking of stereotyping, Amy clearly believes that younger women are the intellectual inferiors of older women.  So she’s just as guilty of stereotypical thinking as “Living My Life” is.

This is a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black.  Which, by the way, is one of my three favorite old-timey expressions.  (The other two are “Six of one, half a dozen of the other” and “It’s every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.”)

*     *     *     *     *

If “Living My Life” had written to me instead of to Amy, I might have asked him who was paying the bills on these motorcycle adventures, etc.  My guess is that these “Barbie doll” types who are hanging out with his sorry old ass would head for the hills if he ever suggested that they split the dinner tab.  Of course, the same would likely be true if he was dating women closer to his own age.

In a recent survey conducted by Money magazine, a whopping 72% of women said they think men should pay for the first date.  (Most of the 28% who answered otherwise aren’t really telling the truth – they may believe in going Dutch in theory, but I guarantee you that most of them would be offended if the man didn’t at least offer to pay the whole bill.)  

Even after the first date, men tend to pick up the majority of expenses because they feel guilty taking money from women. 

Here’s what one woman had to say about this issue:

It’s not fair that straight men feel obligated to pay for their female dates, but it’s ultimately worse for the women.  Social scientists label chivalrous behavior like treating women to dinner, “benevolent sexism.”  Benevolent sexism is the notion that women should be adored and cherished, along with the paternalistic notion that they need men’s protection.  It reinforces stereotypes that women are both fabulous and fragile, and that they need men’s help. 

So you’ve got two choices, fellas.  You can go Dutch and be viewed as a cheapskate.  Or you can pick up the tab and be perceived as a sexist – albeit a benevolent one.

You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t – it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other.

*     *     *     *     *

Holly Beth Vincent formed Holly and the Italians in Los Angeles in 1978.  The next year, the group moved to London so Vincent could live with her boyfriend, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.

“Tell That Girl to Shut Up” was released in December 1979, when Holly and the Italians were still in London.  The band moved back to the U.S. to record their first and only album, The Right to Be Italian, which was released in early 1981.

I heard “Tell That Girl to Shut Up” on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes” radio show in the summer of 1980.  I bought the album shortly after it was released, and sold it to Steven last year after schlepping it around for 40 years.

Click here to listen to “Tell That Girl to Shut Up.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Stranglers – "Straighten Out" (1977)

I’ll tell you things

That’ll make your curls

Straighten out

This post started out as one thing, and ended up as something very different.  

I took a long bike ride on Sunday, and planned to write a post about the history of the rail trail I rode that would include photos of flowers, old buildings, and train cars that I took while on the ride.  But I stumbled upon something that took me in a very different direction.  

What this post ultimately ended up becoming is interesting, I think, but also very sad.  So if you’re not in the mood for something like that today, feel free just to skip to the end and listen to today’s featured song.

*     *     *     *     *

On November 18, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln took a Northern Central Railway train from Baltimore to Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, where he connected to a Hanover Branch Railroad train that took him to Gettysburg:

Lincoln’s Gettysburg train
at Hanover Junction in 1863

The next day, Lincoln attended the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, and delivered the most famous speech in American history – the 271-word Gettysburg Address. 

*     *     *     *     *

Lincoln passed through Hanover Junction one other time.  On April 21, 1865, a Northern Central Railway train carrying the martyred president’s coffin left Baltimore and passed through Hanover Junction on the way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

There it was carried by hearse to the State Capitol, where approximately 10,000 mourners filed past the coffin that night.

The next day, the coffin was placed on a train that carried it to Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Chicago before  arriving at Springfield, Illinois on May 3.

*     *     *     *     *

The Northern Central Railway ceased operations in 1972, and the 41-mile stretch of its right-of-way that ran from Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania, eventually became a rail trail.

A replica of a Lincoln-era train
at Hanover Junction

The Pennsylvania portion of that rail trail is officially known as the York County Heritage Rail Trail.  On Mother’s Day, I rode the southern half of that trail from New Freedom – which sits just above the Mason-Dixon Line – to Hanover Junction and back.  

*     *     *     *     *

There are quite a few benches along the rail trail where tired hikers or bikers can stop and rest.  Nearly all those benches have small plaques commemorating a friend or family member who has passed away.

I happened to notice one such plaque that was a little different:

“End of watch” has two meanings when used by law enforcement personnel.  It usually refers to the end of a police officer’s shift, or “watch.”  But it can also refer to the date of the death of an officer who was killed in the line of duty.

Here’s an account of Officer David Tome’s death from a local newspaper:

David Tome died doing what he loved – being a police officer.

Those who knew Tome said he was a dedicated officer with Northern York County Regional Police, a great husband and father of two and an all-around likeable guy. . . .

While re-creating a fatal crash from earlier in the week, Tome was struck and killed Tuesday by a vehicle on Route 15, near Clear Springs Road in Franklin Township.  Tome and two other officers had set up orange warning cones in the middle of the right southbound lane of Route 15 about 9 a.m. when he was struck.

York County Coroner Barry Bloss said Tome's family is struggling to understand the death.

"They are absolutely devastated," he said.

Tome, 31, graduated from Spring Grove Area High School in 1996. His wife of seven years, Dody, was his classmate. The couple has a son and a daughter.

Tome became a police officer after graduating from Harrisburg Area Community College's 83rd Police Academy in 2003. He served as a regional officer for the past five years.

[Police chief Carl] Segatti said Tome was a good officer with a strong work ethic.  He loved and enjoyed his job in the uniformed patrol division, where he specialized as an accident reconstructionist, Segatti said.

Officer David Tome

The two other officers who were there at the time of the crash are doing as well as can be expected, Segatti said.  The police department closed Wednesday to mourn the loss of a fellow officer, he said. . . .

Fellow police officers have taken the death rather hard, a reality check that the job is often dangerous and deadly, several law enforcement representatives said.

"We like to think we are tougher than the average citizen out there," Segatti said. "We are when we have work to do.  But we have the same emotions as everyone.  We just don't have the luxury to show them."

Tome was struck by a 2006 Saturn Vue driven by Joanna Seibert of Dillsburg.  Seibert was shaken up by the crash and taken to Gettysburg Hospital for observation, police said.

Through a family member, Seibert declined to comment Tuesday.

Based on a preliminary investigation, Seibert hit the brakes and tried to stop before hitting Tome.  The impact sent Tome's body over a guardrail and down an embankment, killing him instantly.

An autopsy conducted Tuesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital determined Tome died of multiple blunt force trauma.

 Officer Tome's fellow officers pay tribute to him 

Based on the location of the injuries, it appears Tome was hit from the back or the side, indicating he either did not see the car coming or saw it at the last second, Bloss said.

By the time Tome heard Seibert skidding on the highway, it was too late to get out of the way, he said.

*     *     *     *     *

Joanna Seibert was convicted of vehicular homicide in the death of Officer Tome.  This account of her November 30, 2011, sentencing is from another local newspaper article:

A Dillsburg woman convicted in a crash that killed a police officer was sentenced today to . . . 1 year minus a day to 5 years minus a day in York County Prison.

The judge rejected a request for house arrest for Seibert, who is pregnant.  She's due to deliver in mid-February, so Kelly ordered her to begin serving on March 14.

Seibert, 40, was convicted Oct. 12 of homicide by vehicle and tampering with evidence in the 2008 accident on Route 15 near Dillsburg in which Northern York County Regional Police Officer David Tome, 31, was hit and killed by Seibert’s SUV.

The sentencing came after two hours of emotional testimony from Tome’’ and Seibert’s families this afternoon.

Jamie Bell, Tome's sister, said there are mementos and monuments to Tome in York County, “but they're all we have. There's no David.”

She said she hadn't heard from Seibert since the crash and didn't care to hear from her today. “I am not going to forgive you,” Bell said. “As far as I'm concerned, you can go to hell.”

Seibert said she thinks about Tome every day and that if it would ease the family's grief she would trade places with him.  “But that cannot happen,” she said.

Tome was starting work on an accident reconstruction on Route 15 south near Clear Spring Road in Franklin Township south of Dillsburg when he was hit and killed on Oct, 21, 2008.  Seibert was speeding and tailgating the vehicle ahead of her and had been using her iPhone and applying makeup.  [NOTE: Seibert maintained she was distracted by something in her eye.]  

Prosecutor Tim Barker has called those three factors, speeding, tailgating and not paying attention, “the trifecta of death.”

In court documents, Seibert said she is pregnant and had asked the court to sentence her to house arrest.  Defense lawyer Ed Spreha said house arrest is appropriate because of a serious medical condition discovered in the fetus.  Spreha said the baby has been diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening condition that will require Seibert to relocate to the Philadelphia area for monitoring during the rest of her pregnancy. . . .

*     *     *     *     *

You might suspect Seibert and her lawyer of exaggerating the seriousness of her unborn baby’s condition in hopes of persuading the judge not to send her to prison.  But you would be wrong.  

Seibert gave birth to a daughter with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or CDH – the “potentially life-threatening condition” mentioned in there article above – in February 2012.  

The little girl died six weeks later, on March 15.

Seibert had originally been scheduled to start her prison term on March 14.  But after her baby was born, a judge delayed her reporting date until May 9.

She eventually served ten months in prison. 

*     *     *     *     *

Most of the comments that were posted in response to a newspaper article announcing her early release expressed outrage:

– A wife without a husband, two children without a father for s lifetime, and the person who robbed them of him serves less than a year.  This disgusts me. . . . This punishment in no way fits the crime. 

– This is bullshit!!!!!  This wasn’t even her first offense of reckless driving!!!!!  She should have had to do life in prison . . . . Just sickening.

– This worthless bitch needs to rot in hell.

A few – very few – of the comments were more forgiving:

–It would be interesting to see how all those quick to judge (of course you have never made a mistake, needed a second chance, driven distracted . . . you’re all saints) would feel if the killer was your family member as opposed to the victim.  There are always two perspectives.  You could be changing a radio station tomorrow and hit someone . . . does that mean you deserve to fry, rot in hell, etc.?

– Pray for her, her family and Officer Tome’s family.  If you judge, you will be judged!  We all are guilty of something!  Let ye who have not sinned cast stones!

*     *     *     *     *

I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided to post a photo of the rail-trail bench with the plaque commemorating Officer Tone.

But once I started telling the story, I didn’t feel that I could stop in the middle of it.

The deeper I got into it, the worse things got.  Unfortunately, that’s the way life goes sometimes.

There’s really no good way to end this post, is there?

*     *     *     *     *

Today’s featured song was a non-album B-side released by the Stranglers in 1977.  (If a song as good as “Straighten Out” wasn’t good enough to be included on one of the Stranglers’ albums, imagine how good the songs that did make the cut were.)

The Stranglers in 1978

I first heard “Straighten Out” on  Steven Lorber’s legendary “Mystic Eyes” radio show in the summer of 1980.

Click here to listen to “Straighten Out.”

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.

Clockwork Orange – "Your Golden Touch" (1967)

I was a fool to cry so much

I was a victim of your golden touch

Bill Ashley taught himself to play the drums in 1965, when he was a 15-year-old living in Paducah, Kentucky.  His first group was Clockwork Orange, which released a single titled “Your Golden Touch” in 1967.

I heard “Your Golden Touch” on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes” radio show in 1980.  He’s not sure how he became acquainted with the record – which didn’t sell enough copies to make the Billboard “Hot 100” – but he did.

After a fair amount of Googling, I was able to track down Bill Ashley and interview him about Clockwork Orange and “Your Golden Touch.”

*     *     *     *     *

2 or 3 lines: One of the most memorable and disturbing movies I ever saw was A Clockwork Orange.  I initially assumed that your band took its name from that movie, but you formed Clockwork Orange several years before the movie was released.

The first edition of A Clockwork Orange

Bill Ashley: Danny Powley, our singer, had read the book the movie was based on – we had no idea when we formed the band that there was going to be a movie.  Originally the band was named “The Clockwork Orange,” but we dropped the “the” at some point.

2 or 3 lines: So how did Clockwork Orange get its start?

Bill: The group was organized by Elliott Payne and Terry Frasier.  Elliott moved away and leadership of the band was taken over by Terry, a gifted guitarist who had been playing since he was five.

2 or 3 lines: Was everyone in Clockwork Orange from Paducah?

Bill:  Yes, we were.  In addition to Terry and Danny Powley, the members were Barry Yancey on bass, Steve Rudolph – who played the Hammond B3 organ and trumpet – and me.

2 or 3 lines: Did you play a lot of live gigs?

Bill: We were in high demand at colleges in the area – all the way from southern Illinois to Nashville.  We were gone every weekend playing, and we developed a great style and became very close.

2 or 3 lines:  What kind of music did Clockwork Orange play?

Bill: We were influenced by the psychedelic music of the day – groups like the Electric Prunes and Strawberry Alarm Clock, to name a couple. 

2 or 3 lines: “Your Golden Touch,” which was written by Terry Frasier, certainly has a psychedelic feel.

Bill:   Terry had begun to write his own songs and suggested that we record “Your Golden Touch” when we decided to release something original.

2 or 3 lines:  I had no idea until recently that “Your Golden Touch” was produced by Doug Kershaw, who was a fiddle player from Louisiana who sold a lot of record in the seventies – I guess “Louisiana Man” is his most famous song.  I understand that he wrote the flip side to “Your Golden Touch,” which was a song titled “Do Me Right Now.”

Doug Kershaw (circa 1969)

Bill: Doug Kershaw wrote that song on the way to the studio because we had no other material to record.  

2 or 3 lines: I take it that “Your Golden Touch” didn’t sell very well.  

Bill: We sold very few recordings, so we went back to doing live performances.  But the band just wasn’t the same without Steve.  He eventually did recover, but it took a long time. 

*     *     *     *     *

2 or 3 lines: Do you keep in touch with the other members of Clockwork Orange?  Are any of them still involved with music?

Bill: All of the original members of Clockwork Orange are alive and well, but none of them are still performing today except myself.  Terry Frasier still lives in Paducah, where I saw him several years ago – but quit playing guitar decades ago for some reason and never returned to it.  Danny Powley

went to Vietnam and never returned to performing. He lives in Paducah, too. Barry Yancey moved to Texas and never returned to performing.  Steve Rudolph eventually recovered from his motorcycle accident and lives in New Orleans.  I look him up whenever I play in New Orleans.  I last saw him this past January.

The Clockwork Orange (circa 1968)

2 or 3 lines: So you are still drumming?

Bill: Yes, I’m the only original member of Clockwork Orange still performing – 55 years after we formed the band.  I’m 70, and still perform regularly, mostly in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.  I often play with Steve Hopper, who is a very popular tropical rock, or “trop rock” performer, and have been on some of his albums – including Anywhere There’s a Beach, which was recorded in Muscle Shoals in 2017, and went to #1 on the trop rock charts.  

[NOTE: Click here to listen to the title track of Steve Hopper’s Anywhere There’s a Beach album.]

2 or 3 lines: So you’ve left Paducah for warmer climes?

Bill: I left Paducah in the early seventies and moved to Florida. I lived on Anna Maria Island, which is near Bradenton, for many years. The music scene on the west coast of Florida in those days was great. I usually played six nights a week with many excellent musicians.  I’m very glad I was able to keep performing music, and I’m sorry the others in Clockwork Orange decided to quit. I really miss the great times we had and the music we created.  I will never forget those times. 

*     *     *     *     *

The next 2 or 3 lines will feature a never-released demo of “Your Golden Touch” that Clockwork Orange recorded before they met Doug Kershaw.

Bill Ashley thinks that recording is superior to the Doug Kershaw-produced recording that I heard on the “Mystic Eyes,” and I tend to agree.

But I’ll let you and your fellow 2 or 3 lines readers decide that for yourselves.

Click here to listen to the Doug Kershaw-produced recording of “Your Golden Touch.”

Razz – "You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)" (1979)

The shops along the street . . .

They’re not open to me yet

What’s up, dog?

*     *     *     *     *

Perhaps the only positive result of the stay-at-home orders that the governors of Maryland and Virginia issued on March 30 is that there’s very little traffic on the automobile bridges that connect those two states.

I live on the Maryland side of the Potomac, but Virginia has better bicycle trails – hands down.  I’d cross the river to ride those trails more often if the traffic didn’t poop the bed so often.  It’s bad not only during the morning and evening rush hours, but also in the middle of the day and on weekends.

I got so frustrated returning home from Virginia after a bike ride a couple of years ago that I sent a text to my four children – all of whom live on my side of the river – and told them that if they ever moved to Virginia, they shouldn’t expect any visits from me.  

*     *     *     *     *

The most scenic paved bike trail in northern Virginia by far is the 18-mile-long Mount Vernon Trail, which begins at the father of our country’s old stomping grounds and proceeds along the west bank of the Potomac River to Theodore Roosevelt Island.  

The day before Easter, I drove to my oldest son’s house on Capitol Hill to say hello to him, his wife, and their two sons – who I hadn’t seen in person in over a month.  I stayed on the sidewalk and they stayed in their front yard, behind a fence.  There was no touching, of course, but it was infinitely better than just seeing them on Zoom.

From there I drove to Old Town Alexandria, the midpoint of the Mount Vernon Trail, and headed north on my trusty Trek 7.3 bike.

*     *     *     *     *

Once you get out of Alexandria, you ride by the marina at Daingerfield Island:

The trail then skirts Reagan National Airport.  Usually there are planes taking off or landing every couple of minutes, but today was quite different.  Saturday afternoon is a slow time at most airports, but “slow” understates the air traffic at Reagan today.

Just north of the airport is a Gravelly Point, where there’s a large parking lot for people who want a close-up view of airplanes taking off and flying over their heads:  

I had planned to stop there and take some dramatic and noisy video of the jets to send to my grandsons, but the parking lot was closed and there were no planes taking off.

*     *     *     *     *

The stretch of trail between the airport and Roosevelt Island is never more than a few yards from the Potomac.  It passes over (or under) several major D.C.-to-Virginia bridges, and several memorials – including the Navy and Marine Memorial, which commemorates Americans who were lost at sea.

That memorial is surrounded by a wide circular bed of bright-red tulips, which are at their peak right now:

(Look closely at that photo and you’ll see the Washington Monument.)

*     *     *     *     *

Theodore Roosevelt Island is an undeveloped, 90-acre island that’s owned by the National Park Service.  Its walking trails are closed to visitors due to COVID-19 concerns, which seems like overkill to me.  But ours is not to question why, etc.

The northern end of the Mount Vernon Trail marks the southern terminus of the Potomac Heritage Trail, a challenging hiking trail that continues north along the river for ten additional miles.

No bikes allowed on the Potomac Heritage Trail:

*     *     *     *     *

On the way back to my starting point, I stopped and took some photos of a few of the many dogwoods – which is the official state flower of Virginia – along the trail:

Dogwoods are nice, but my #1 seed when it comes to flowering trees is the Eastern redbud:

I also stopped to take some pictures of some of the construction machinery being used in the rebuilding of the Arlington Memorial Bridge:

Here’s a little one-man tugboat that’s being used in the repair project:

(My grandsons eat that stuff up.)

*     *     *     *     *

The trail took me past several waterfront parks in Alexandria, where there was plenty more good stuff to photograph for my boys, including a fire engine and a paddlewheel boat:

*     *     *     *     *

Contrary to the title of today’s featured song, it seems that you can hide from the coronavirus – just stay in your house 24/7 and you should be fine.  (Not mentally, of course.)  

Tommy Keene was the brains behind the Razz, the Washington-area band that released “You Can Run (But You Can’t Hide)” in 1979.  Keene was a very gifted power-pop songwriter and performer who should have hit it big but never did.  It seems his records were too commercial for music snobs, but not commercial enough to get played on the radio.

Keene, who grew up in Bethesda, MD – which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the home of 2 or 3 lines – died in 2017.  He was only 59.

Here’s an excerpt from an appreciation of Keene that was written by fellow musician John Davis:

There is reliable romance in the story of a brilliant musician who never got the full appreciation he was due.  With the death of Tommy Keene, it might be easy to look at his career and wonder why he remained solely a cult figure among fans of the earnest, infectious branch of rock and roll that is insufficiently dubbed “power pop.”  To do so would be folly: There is only joy in reflecting on a man who brought us elegiac yet ebullient songs . . . .

Click here to listen to “You Can Run (But You Can’t Hide”), which is yet another of the great songs I first heard on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes’ radio show in 1980.