Mr. Bojangles; Fifty years ago Rock and Roll Memory Lane

 I have been mulling about this post for months. Finally getting to it.  At the end of last year an obituary caught my eye. I didn’t recognize the  name but the words “Mr. Bojangles” stood out. The writer of that song, Jerry Jeff Walker,  passed away,  but  his song will go on. People of a certain generation will know the 1970 version,  a kind of  upbeat musical number that you can’t always make out the lyrics by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  And Neil Diamond’s  version was a little slowed down that one could make out the words better. Its amazing how different artists interpret the same song so differently.
     I think the best version of Mr. Bojangles that I have heard is one that was not released as a single. I happened acrossed it on a greatest hits album by Jim Stafford. I borrowed it for his funny songs. We all know Jim’s songs the humous ; “I Don’t Like Spider and Snakes” , “Wildwood Weed”, and “My Girl Bill”. 
     His version of Mr. Bojangles is unbelievable. The part about when  Mr. Bojanles asks “why dogs don’t live so long” is a real tear jerker almost every time I hear it. Enjoy, I put all three versions on here to compare…

Nitty Gritty….  https://youtu.be/e-LVXR6rjXs

Neil Diamond… https://youtu.be/_K0UKms267c

Jim Stafford… https://youtu.be/Eqlk3FhRRDU

Gary Lovell
Copyright. 2021

Mighty Clouds of Joy; Fifty years Ago Rock and Roll Memories.

Fifty years ago, the late B.J. Thomas had a great song called “Mighty Clouds of Joy”. One of my favorite songs.
It only got to number 34 on the charts in July 1971 but was played alot. It was a religious oriented song, probably could be a Christian rock song nowadays. He later did record Gospels albums. In honor of the late great BJ Thomas enjoy the original and a live version. RIP.

Gary Lovell
Copyright. 2021

Cool love song from 1969.

The other day I heard the song: “Love can Make you Happy” by Mercy. One of the first love songs I heard when I started listening to rock and pop radio in 1969.  It’s a very pretty love song and the lyrics hit home too. I think I had a grade school girl crush at the time that this song reminds me of. Check out the video. ..

Gary Lovell
Copyright. 2021

Robins Nest on Light

July 15, 2021 Update: So far the only fledgling grand baby bird I have seen since the other day. Jedi sniffed it out so I could see it. He remembered where he chased it earlier. Its parents were squawking but it was safe yesterday.

Todays Nature Note: after two attempts at hatching eggs a pair of robins finally got three babies to the fledgling stage. And while I sat on the porch one brave chick bailed and landed on the ramp with the parents squawking a fit. When I went to take a picture it had moved.
The backstory: last year on the just installed motion light, a robin started a nest. I wrapped it in saran wrap and they made a nest in a tree by the creek.
Fast forward and they started and stopped several times this year a nest on the light again. I scared the adults everyday as we left the house and warned her its not a good place. They didn’t listen. Several times a little bit of mud and grass showed up. Then no activity. Then after a day plus of rain in May the nest was finished in two days. Apparently there was now enough water for a sufficient amount of mud.
One egg was laid in the nest each of four days and I used a mirror to check. And of course quite often the mother wasn’t on the nest because we kept disturbing her. Eventually the two eggs hatched but the babies died and they must have had a funeral or something as the remains of the eggs and babies disappeared.
On the 20th of June, my brother was in town and decided to look and put his cell phone camera up there and low and behold another egg. I watched as two more eggs arrived and this time she was more fearless and stayed put on the nest and we used the garage to come and go as much as possible.
The babies hatched out and have grown like weeds. They were small fluff balls at the bottom of the nest, just maybe two weeks ago. Now they are so big they hang over the edge. So this photo is introducing our grand baby robins.

Gary Lovell
Copyright. 2021

Introducing our grand baby birds.