The Times of Your Life Collection
	Late night the figures flicker in black and white. Buy now. The songs of your life. Feeling old - I actually remember most of these. I may have only been in my cradle when television first brought the world into color, but damn these melodies sound so familiar. Perfhaps heard through my father's ears as he slow danced with my mother and whispered sweet words of love. More likely heard through a tinny radio in the backyard - swinging back and forth as my mother hung the wash in a light breeze. In a hazy, spotlit world, the Shirelles shimmy. Frankie walks like a man. Dusty Springfield - the white girl from England who sang like a soul sister - tossed aside by Beatlemania - now dead of cancer. And now Ricky Nelson-s a travelin- man - as his vacant eyes take flight and scan the empty horizon. Does he foresee his plummet into the abyss even now in the camera-s glare? Are they all so tragic? Do the puppet masters only choose those unable or unwilling to defend against the endless-repeating dance of the cash registers and late night shilling? Ah, and Roy Orbison. Poor, poor Roy. Those jug ears protruding from that pug ugly face. That sallow complexion and doughy body, but oh the voice. Quavering high above like some alien falsetto - Elvis would have killed for that voice. Do you think Roy already hears the screams of his three young boys as the fire consumed them, or feel the limp body of his wife after the motorcycle accident as he sings of pretty women and blue bayous? In dreams the candy colored clown is only crying: Death haunts him from the mirror despite the shades. Talent, hard work, payola and sacrifice... mostly sacrifice, and was it worth it? To only be remembered by half-dead, sleepwalking fools adrift in their own nostalgia of lost youth. I dial the number on the screen: My credit card is ready.

Past, present & future
misguided ramblings of the MusiCurmudgeon
Stroll through the vaults of a diseased mind!