That's It, Just One Line: Atlantic City

 

"We're going out where the sands are turning to gold."

Such a sad song with some vivid imagery. 

The Fifth Beatle: Billy Preston

Frofabulous

Billy Preston is one of the very few musicians to be given credit on a Beatles recording, which was done at the band's request on the 1969 single Get Back.

He was a child prodigy, playing by ear without having ever taken a lesson. The people he has performed with are a who's who of music: playing piano for Mahalia Jackson at 10; performing with Fats Domino at the age of 11; and starring in a movie as a young W.C. Handy at 12. 

And that's just the 50s. 

In the 60s, he performed with Andre Crouch, went on tour with Little Richard, and is on Sam Cooke's Night Beat album. Later in the decade, he played with Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles. 

Whew. 

After the Get Back sessions in 1969, Billy joined the Beatles once more, playing organ on Abbey Road's I Want You (She's So Heavy). 

Billy spent the 70s recording with his A-list friends and for himself, including the massive hit Nothing from Nothing, and finding time to write You Are So Beautiful with Joe Cocker. 

Dude was everywhere: he was even the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1975. 

I entered the Preston fandom circle in 1979, the duet he did with Syreeta, With You I'm Born Again.

The 80s weren't kind; he got into some trouble with drugs and booze, but recovered to become one of Ringo's early All Starr Band members in the 90s. He was an in-demand session musician in the 00s for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Norah Jones, Johnny Cash, and the Funk Brothers. He even made an appearance on American Idol!

Billy battled personal demons throughout his life, and... can't we just let people be who they are? He remained firmly in the closet his whole life and died of kidney disease in 2006. 

Lipstick on the Mic: Madonna

Chilling with Madge 

With someone larger than life, how do you gain a new perspective? Take one slice and look at that.  

I often joked in the past that Madonna was the patron saint of repressed Catholic school girls everywhere. And like her, I'm a Michigan-born Catholic who had to deal with a stern father. I reacted to her self-confessional songs on True Blue and Like a Prayer exactly because of that. While she rebelled against the patriarchal rigidity of Catholicism and questioned its teachings, she still longed to embrace what the Church had to offer. 

And yet, by following the teachings of the Catholic church and marrying Sean Penn, she did not get that love and protection in return, as she confessed in Til Death Do Us Part. Family conflict in the song Oh Father. At the time Like a Prayer was released, I was with someone who wanted to wait until marriage to consummate our relationship. I was surprised to realize I didn't, ready to express myself with someone whom I trusted with my body, heart, and soul, feeling it was not a sin. 

Sexual freedom came late, but it still came for me in 1989. 

Madonna went on to explore other avenues in the 90s, playing a 40s-era baseball player, a dominatrix, Evita, and embracing new age electronica. She's recently released Confessions II, her most celebrated album in nearly 30 years. But it's still her self-confessional period of the late 80s and early 90s that I loved her best. 

Happy birthday.

YA Book Club: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

 

Another girl-bonding novel turned major motion picture. 

The bonds in the story are so strong that the actresses portraying Lena, Bridget, Tibby, and Carmen have their own group chat that has been going strong for nearly 20 years. (I'm still trying to figure out what Blake Lively did that cancel culture zeroed in on her. Maybe I'm not reading enough Entertainment Weekly. I do know that she wasn't invited to Taylor's wedding.)

In the story, the four girls have been friends for life, having been born within days of each other, their mothers meeting at a birthing class. Before going their separate ways for the summer, they went shopping and found The Pants, a pair of jeans that somehow fit all four of them perfectly, even though they are all different sizes and shapes. The novel tells the tale of their summer and how the pants tie it all together. 

Lena spends the summer in Greece with her grandparents and falls in love with Kostos, a neighbor boy who brings her out of her shell. 

Bridget goes to California for soccer camp, falls in love with, and aggressively pursues a coach. He rebuffs her, and Lena comes to her rescue. 

Carmen goes to North Carolina to stay with her divorced father and is shocked to see he is engaged, and she will have new step-siblings. Feeling like she's been replaced, she returns home, only to be encouraged to mend the rift and celebrate her family's expansion. 

Tibby, left behind in their hometown, befriends young Bailey, who frequents the drugstore where she works. Bailey has leukemia, and Tibby, an aspiring filmmaker, chronicles Bailey's spirit for life as her days are ebbing away. 

The jeans are the item drawing the stories together; each time they are worn, the girl discovers something new about themselves - be it love, courage, compassion, or healing.