Here's a Happy Birthday shout out to lifelong friend and Beatles fan, Paul Hobbs!
A Happy Birthday to my grandsons, Brendan and Drew who also love The Beatles and share this birthday date with Paul. I guess if you were born on August 14th, you were destined to be a Beatles fan.
Since Paul is also such a huge friend to Monday Monday Music™ with many contributions to my blogs over the years, I thought I'd put together some of Paul's favorite songs together in a playlist. Directly below the playlist, you'll find an embedded Spotify playlist Paul put together several years ago of his, Top 100. I of course have lifted many of the songs from that list here, but he don't mind.
Paul McCartney wrote When I'm Sixty-Fourwhen he was sixteen years old in the 1950's. It's an idyllic projection that he actually lived with wife Linda if not for her early death from cancer. It is also an early expression of love experienced in his own family upbringing and tapped into as a budding genius storyteller.
Paul would sing the song in early Beatle gigs at clubs between sets, or when some equipment broke down and the band had to stop for a bit. The song was recorded in 1966 for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Bandalbum when Paul's father was sixty-four. Another fun fact, Paul's kids surprised him on his own sixty-fourth birthday with their recording of the song with altered lyrics. But the ironic fact that stands out for me was that when Paul was sixty-four, he had separated from second wife Heather Mills and later divorced, or as the English say, "a fine kettle of fish."
This past year I turned sixty-four, and as I write this (on January 2) it's my lovely wife, Mary Kit's sixty-fourth birthday! On this day, we'll be living Birthday greetings bottle of wine.
Life is such a mixed bag. When you reach sixty-four years of age, you've lived through some fantastic, good, bad and even ugly times.
Here's a 2020 random ying yang stream of thoughts to my wonderful wife and extended to anyone who's hit the sixty-four mark and beyond.
You're Sixty-Four (+)
Empathy supersedes sympathy.
You used to be the youngest person at a meeting.
"Until death do us part" has probably been officially said to you at least a couple of times by a minister or justice of the peace. Also, there were less people there the second time.
Ya go ahead and put it off, no rush.
In the 1950's or early 60's your mom or dad had to hit the breaks and then put out their arm to stop you from flying from the back seat and into the front dashboard or glass.
Grandchildren on your knee
'Surreal' is such an overused word by people who are being interviewed on TV.
The experience was NO dream or fantasy, shit gets real!
Some of your heroes in youth turns out were not heroes at all,
some even went to prison, some need to be.
You shout, "Putin pinko commie asset" at the TV,
while some old fart suddenly loves the Russians.
You get together with friends and talk about 'aches and pains' like it's an art form.
Insurance commercials must be banned from television.
You miss The Marlboro Man in sweeping vistas and the theme song-
(Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven"dum, da-da dum")
–minus the cigarettes.
Every summer we can rent a cottage
You now have a personal trainer.
No no, not a real person but a free iPhone runner's app with the synthesized female dominatrix voice, yelling, "faster faster!"
No regrets.
Remember rushing to finish writing assignments in school. Finishing was the only reward.
At some point editing became a friend, and the process a life-long reward.
The circle of life possibly now has you looking after your parents.
Work to keep the bond with your siblings and family strong.
In twenty or so years from now, you'll be where your parents were.
Pop quiz - Beemans, Blackjack, Clove - What are they?
Get off the concrete and asphalt and walk or run in nature.
You've been involved in a major accident, and lived to tell about it.
You don't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks about you. Anyone.
You watched the first SNL live.
44 years later, Eddie Murphy on SNL made you laugh through every sketch.
The Rolling Stone's recent No Filter Tour is the best name ever for a rock 'n' roll tour.
"Those kids are just standing on our lawn?"
Team Tortoise - slow and steady for the long run.
Tears now come like rain.
Retirement...
"Everyday is Saturday, and if not Saturday, Sunday." (thanks Jimmer for that one)
At some point, you thought Don Henley was writing about you.
You can count your true friends on the fingers of one hand, hold that hand.
Up at 4:20am for no reason on God's green earth.
If you're up because you have to go to your day job, hang in there,
there's a light at the end of the tunnel; or as Mary Kit would say-
"There's a light at the end of the tunnel as long as it's not a gorilla with a flashlight."
You're a close friend to your children.
John Lennon sang, "love is real." He should have added, "but sometimes illusive."
You've had a major medical condition, and you're still here.
Ok, when does the wisdom thing kick in?
A smiling child yells, "Grandma" or "Grandpa" and they are looking at you. The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. –Sam Levenson (thanks Bill for that one)
Life's a three act play.
The third act just started right after you got up to go to the bathroom.
Someone has taken credit for your work.
Elderly people who lived through World War II now have to watch some news report of some dumb ass kids at some picture ceremony giving white supremacist signs and the Hitler salute.
You watch young children play and think what a wonderful world!
You can't prove or disprove that there is a God,
but at some point in adulthood you realized that rock 'n' roll saved your life.
Vaping is... hilarious to watch.
You've lived to see Science in the USA treated like it's astrology.
Every hit song that you've ever loved on the radio has been turned into a TV commercial.
Friends have died.
In the 20th century, you thought recycling was the answer.
Today only 9% of the world's plastic is actually recycled.
The 'blended family' is now just, family.
You grew up wanting to stay at the Disneyland Hotel. You've done that.
As Billy Joel said, "We didn't start the fire." Our children think we did.
Greta Thunberg knows we did.
You've made When I'm Sixty-Four your new ringtone or ringback tone. This will last for only a few weeks before you go back to a standard iPhone tone.
Fuck cancer.
Giving exceeds receiving.
Back in the day, you've woken up on a friends dirty carpet with all your clothes on, and now wouldn't dare sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag. Camping!
Somewhere long ago you actually paid 25 cents for a gallon of gas.
You go to Las Vegas to see The Beatles' Love at the Mirage,
like it's a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Be a light for someone.
Roger Daltrey now hates people smoking dope at Who concerts.
Times change, but The Who still sounds fantastic live.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated, you were told at school by your teacher.
You cried- if not at school, some place where no one could see you.
Keto smeto - I'm not giving up pizza!
You've held her hair back, or you've rubbed his back...
while bending over the toilet and hurling Boone's Farm and Cheetos.
Opportunity and choice are the greatest gifts you can give a young person.
I miss it when someone doesn't initiate and say, "good morning" when you pass and you're the only person around. Or you initiate, "good morning" and they ignore you and just walk on by.
We shall scrimp and save
You don't put your head under water at the pool or ocean, c'mon man!
The weight is always there, it hangs like a dark cloud, but dammit you're really happy.
The maturation of hair loss on the top of head to then sprout like spring weeds in your nose and ears is just a cruel joke.
Create, express you passions.
A New Year's resolution is just a cheap setup for a fail. Actions not words win the day.
Houdini said that the hardest thing for him was to get out of bed. You love your bed.
Email title in my Inbox- Domino's Stuffed Cheesy Bread is calling your name.
"hey, Fat Ass."
You're on your third impeachment, however experience tells you this one is completely different. You realize we are living in an epic historical period in our government while many seem oblivious to the challenge to our democracy. You're watching and talking to people of reason, stay vilangent.
Got to have a current project going. After that... onto the next project.
Listen to music like you did in your 20's.
Pay-per-view turned out pretty well. You never realized there would be so many good stories coming out of your flat panel television.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
You're in a position where you don't have to work with assholes.
If you are, at least you have an exit strategy.
You've had injuries and walked down that lonesome road all by yourself.
You've eaten orange slices with 7,000 people after the finish line.
A long time ago, a friend put a condom under the faucet
and filled it like a water balloon to show you it wouldn't explode.
BTW, have you seen those water balloon kits for kids at Costco, pure genius!
You know religion, you know spirituality. Think of retirement as a set of retread tires, you've got new tread on old tires for the road ahead.
Walking is one of the essential keys of life- walk, walk, walk.
Your spouse says at the restaurant,"Don't tell them it's my birthday." Mine for evermore
Your grandchildren play the song below on Alexia to you over FaceTime
while singing and dancing.
