Just Happy To Be Here
What a difference a few decades make!
So now that I’ve tee’d up the people on here who are perhaps ignorant of music that came before the advent of the CD, I had to share an incredibly fortunate event that I happened upon a few days ago in a tiny little place called Nolan’s Irish Pub.
They were having their “Writers Night” where local musicians can showcase their songs, but this week they had a surprise guest: A songwriter you all now know about: Tony Macaulay.
It’s incredible to think Tony was performing some of his greatest hits at a little place without much fanfare or pomp, when rewinding the clock about 50 years would’ve had people wrapped around the building waiting for some facetime with this 2-time Songwriter of the Year.
Tony played and sang his songs, and peppered in some great stories from the music industry about how David Bowie got his start, and meeting Elton John before he was Elton John. It was a fantastic night out! One I’ll remember for a very long time.
This sentiment was palpable in the pub, and while most people appreciated the sheer unlikeliness of the night, there were a couple people at the bar gabbing away the entire time with zero idea of who the 80 year old man at the keyboard was. Can’t blame em for not noticing though, since many of Tony’s hits are piano cover standards. Thus, please forgive both my potato-camera, and abysmal audio quality, and enjoy this ad-hoc concert featuring some of my alltime favorite golden oldies played by the man himself, Tony Macaulay:
Getting the opportunity to see this performance by one of the great songwriters of the last musical era was a real treat, and it reminded me of a story Tony actually told regarding one of the parties that his record company was throwing in his honor. He was asked who he wanted to invite, and this being the 70’s, they were expecting him to name all the huge hits of the day. Instead he took the opportunity to invite many Hollywoodstars of yesteryear, including Charlie Chaplin, who admitted he was thrilled to invited to anything those days, and was just happy to be there.
Similar to my observations in past posts, especially mentioning Rich Little, there’s a lot of talent from days past that you can still go out and see. If you find yourself listening to an old song you really love, take some time to look into the band, the writer, maybe the venue where it was first performed. Do a little homework and go check out what can still be seen in person. Great happenings are all over, you just gotta go make them.