SSC 7 Dec 2019

Explored! Thank you very much :-)

SATURDAY SELF-CHALLENGE
7 DEC 2019
TAKE A PHOTO FEATURING ANYTHING TO DO WITH BOOKS

Pages from "Steve Goodman Facing the Music : A Biography by Clay Eals".

It is a book I bought a while back. It has 778 pages and it could be sometime before I reach the last page :-)

The introduction by Clay Eals starts ~
"Steve was an incurable romantic. He was a little guy who never tried to make out he was bigger. He was as engaging a performer as they come. And, he was unabashedly old-fashioned."
That was the opening for a combined obituary/tribute for Steve Goodman that I wrote in September 1984 for a Seattle newspaper. I had enjoyed Steve's recorded music for more than a dozen years. But, what I held more dear was twice sharing time and place with him as he performed in concert - both times in Eugene, Oregon, where he opened for Randy Newman in a basketball arena in 1977 and played a solo show in a more intimate hall in 1981.
Emmylou Harris, among the last of my more that 1,000 interviewees for this book, hit it on the button when she told me, "There are a lot of great people out there that are not household names, and you know what? It's not a bad thing. Someone like Steve really touched you in a way that music is supposed to touch you, and the people who are fans of Steve Goodman will be fans till death. That's really the best success you can have as an artist."
Till death. In many ways that's what this book is all about........................................

Steve was born 25 July 1948, in Chicago and passed away on 20 September 1984 at UW Medical Center, Seattle aged just 36 years. Steve suffered from leukaemia for almost all his adult life and died of complications from a bone marrow transplant. A devastating blow to the world of music but, at least, we still have his wonderful music.

I became aware of Steve's music when he performed his song "City of New Orleans" on 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' here in the UK. This performance is on YouTube ~
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SfPyg-mGhU
It says it's from 1972.

It wasn't until some years ago that I fully realised what marvellous music Steve made. I still don't have all of his music but I am well on the way :-)

For 'Sight and Sound' I have chosen Steve's totally 'off the wall' performance of his song "The Twentieth Century is Almost Over" :-)))))

Added to Sight and Sound : Pictures & Music

♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ Listen here ~ The Twentieth Century is Almost Over ~ Steve Goodman

♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ Or, listen here ~ The Twentieth Century is Almost Over ~ Steve Goodman