New York City, JUST LIKE I PICTURED IT!
I made it back to Fun City babe, and I'm gonna be up all night.
Remember when Stevie Wonder was on his hot streak, when he could do no wrong? I still think "Talking Book" is the best, and I seem to be one of the few people who still love "Fulfillingness' First Finale," come on, "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away"? If a young 'un heard that it would not compute, because they'd have no frame of reference, no stereo to hear the sublime sound, and "They Won't Go When I Go," WHEW! No one even works with this quietude and subtlety anymore, and this is the album that contains "Boogie On Reggae Woman," although it's not one of my favorites, but all the accolades go to "Songs In The Key Of Life," the finale, the double album with bonus that I think is very good, but overrated, and then there's...
INNERVISIONS!
For a long time my favorite on the LP was the closer, "He's Misstra Know-It-All," but there's no denying the power, the build, of LIVING IN THE CITY!
"A boy is born in hard times Mississippi"
Can't you just hear that intro in your head?
And in the middle, of the long version, the album version, with the dearly-departed Johanan Vigoda playing the judge, the arrested says the above line...NEW YORK CITY, JUST LIKE I PICTURED IT! And the great thing about music is the references, how you can quote a line to a friend and they know exactly what you're talking about, it's a secret society.
And Stevie Wonder started this streak opening for the Stones in '72, touring "Music Of My Life" as the exiles from the U.K. promoted their masterpiece which went straight to number one and then fell of the charts when the tour was done. Come on, what band on Active Rock is gonna record "I Just Wanna See His Face" today? All subtlety, all nuance, is out the window.
And there wasn't as much nuance and subtlety on the follow-up to "Exile On Main Street," "Goats Head Soup." "Dancing With Mr. D" is serviceable, but not the best Stones opener. And I always loved "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," for Mick's enunciation of "POlice" if nothing else, and at this point Johnny Winter's version of "Silver Train" is more famous than the original and "Hide Your Love" has grown on me, but the song we read about for months before the album came out came at the very end, but when it hit the streets they had to change the name...
It was called "Star Star" instead of "Starf***er," that's right, I can't use the F-word in an e-mail, not because I'm afraid of offending you, but because spam filters will make it so you will never even see this e-mail.
"Baby, baby, I've been so sad since you've been gone
Way back to New York City
Where you do belong"
Back when this kind of person was still allowed to live and roam the streets in Manhattan, before all the leather-clad late to the party financial fakes bought all the good seats on the aftermarket.
So maybe you caught the reference...
"If I ever get back to Fun City, girl
I'm gonna make you scream all night"
That's what they called it, when it was still dangerous, FUN CITY!
And I ain't gonna make anybody scream tonight, I'm here in Ginny's apartment alone.
That's Felice's mother, they've always called her by her first name, SHE LIKES IT THAT WAY!
I was supposed to go back to CT, but my driver pooped-out and then the substitute pooped-out, saying he could not even replace himself, and I decided to take Felice up on her offer.
And...to be honest, I wasn't looking at the skyline as we drove in, and it takes almost as much time as it does to get to CT, but, when you hit the island the Indians sold for twenty four bucks...
You can feel the vibe, the excitement, not like L.A., not like any other city in the world, IT'S ALIVE!
And I'm gonna go out to Halal Guys momentarily, like I told you, I'm a man of tradition, but...
I wanted to talk about my Uber ride here.
Why does Uber get such a bad rap, IT JUST WORKS!
That's right, forget Lyft, it won't show up at the house in time. Lyft delivered my Sunsoaked tickets to the wrong address, miles away, one that isn't even on the map, I know, I went by after midnight and it didn't exist!
And the Uber drivers, who also drive for Lyft, everybody does now, tell me that Uber has better promotions.
Yes, there was that sexual harassment thingy.
But the truth is, we're all caught up in the penumbra in America, I'm not saying policy should not be fixed, that it's all right to run a company the way Travis Kalanick did, but the fact is UBER JUST WORKS!
It's magic. A great combo of tech and life.
You pull up the app. It's all there. You know the price in advance.
And everybody treats each other nice.
Is a society where we rate each other a good one?
Ultimately no, but for now it's a great improvement.
Imagine if we rated the airlines.
Then again, we've got no choice, they don't care, they've divvied-up the country and you put up and shut up.
But I'm afraid to get a bad rating, I'm always polite to the Uber driver, always where I say I'm gonna be and on time. And the driver calls me by my name and helps me out with my luggage and the car is clean and oftentimes brand new and...
I feel like a human being.
And did I tell you it was cheaper than a cab?
So after being just a number at American Airlines it was great to be soothed by my Uber ride.
And now that I'm in New York, I wonder...
Should I just stay here all weekend?
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