Back where I started. When this video was new so was I...or at least newer, in my twenties. Radio was just part-time for me, already pushed to the side because of a quick succession of less than satisfying jobs due to sudden format changes and program directors who didnt always think I was great...geez, imagine that? I was working in local Chicago television by then and programmed this video on Music 66 on Channel 66 TV... must have been the summer of 84, a bluesy lament recorded by several ex-Yardbirds including drummer Jim McCarty who a good friend introduced me to earlier this summer when he played the Arcada in St. Charles with the current lineup. After spending my youth on the North Shore, I was really living for the city back in 84. My first crack at urban living was in Edgewater/Uptown on Kenmore near Hollywood where LSD ends. I was there for a year then down to Lincoln Park into the old St. James Hotel for a year or two and then back up to Cornelia not far from Wrigley. So why is this info relevant? Is it just me meandering down Memory Lane? Well, yeah I do that a lot but the real motivation is because I just signed up to move back to Edgewater soon. Close to the start of Thorndale Avenue instead of the end, where it merges with the Elgin OHare Expressway near Roselle. I started out near the lake, living solo with only my shadow for company. Eventually ended up with a family of four (2.0 kids) at the far end of Thorndale for close to twenty five years. And now Im going back alone, theres a certain symmetry to it. No great lake view or high rise luxury, just a basic one bedroom in a corner of Edgewater close to Andersonville. And a pretty quick trip up Ridge to Evanston where Ive got friends. On Friday I already caught keyboardist Chris Formans early afternoon set at the Green Mill. one of Chicagos most legendary jazz clubs....look out owner Dave J. I think I will be spending a lot more time there soon. The corner of Lawrence and Broadway....haunted by the ghosts of legendary performers I witnessed at the Aragon, Riviera and Uptown. Stevie Ray Vaughan, U2, The Pretenders, The Clash, Stray Cats, Marshall Crenshaw, and many more. I hope to meet up with some of them again on the streets of Uptown...and maybe discover a personal fountain of youth, a de Leon-esque quest and probably as ill fated but that never stopped me in the past. But this time with more experience and maybe some fresh insights for repairing the damage. Back up on the Bryn Mawr Red Line L stop that will take me all the way To Sox Park and Chinatown. Theres a little place in the latter that was supposed to become special...and now it always will be even if we never make it back there again....
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 07:22:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015