I'm still waiting for my Ebay copy of Distant Shores, which I know has shipped, and will probably be here tomorrow from CA.
Anyway, part of my story with this LP was to explain how I gave it away in the 60's to a friend who was a member of our folk group, The Highland Four. (the typically quaint name came from the name of the street where one of the members lived in Bridgeport, CT. There were no "highlands" in Bridgeport). He also got my copy of Cabbages & Kings, but that's another story.
I think I related sometime ago that the folk group did a killer version of Dirty Old Town, based upon the Chad & Jeremy version. We did it with special effects, a tub of dry ice and water, to create the fog effect for the song. Again, all true. In fact, I'm sure this helped us win a sizable trophy in 1965 for being, well, the best folk group at a pretty big competition.
Ok, back to the narrative. Billy, or now Bill, was the guy in the group who got the album, and was supposed to return it, simply to show him how great it was, and to introduce him to the title track, so that maybe, sometime, we might work that in. That, unfortunately, never happened. We just sort of drifted apart as he went to the Naval Academy, I stayed in CT, and that was it for the group.
So yesterday, and I don't quite remember how this happened, I found Bill's name on LinkedIn.com. I did the invite thing, not really sure if this Bill was the Bill I knew, but it turned out to be the right one.
After the initial pleasantries of "Great to find you" and "Let's keep in touch," it did occur to me that I hadn't seen the guy in more than 30 years. I sang at his wedding, just me, my 12 string and white suit, but aside from Christmas cards, we really were strangers at this point. He's CEO of a software company in DC, and I wonder if he's even continued to play music. I guess you can only throw the invitation of getting back in touch out there, and then see if anything happens. I tried to reconnect in 1985 or so, which was the 20th anniversary of a radio appearance we did in Bridgeport. I have the original reel to reel tape copy of the show, made some cassette copies and sent them to the last address I had for the other 3 members, I heard back from two, and that was really the last substantial contact we all had. I wonder where this will all go now :).
But that's only one slight reminiscence connected with the LP. All in all, as I recall, it was one great summer that year.
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Ah, yes, Distant Shores brings up great memories for me, too, of the restless summer of 1967. (The very first LP I owned was the C&J album with "Yesterday's Gone," "Summer Song" and "Willow Weep for Me" on it, and I acquired one more in the intervening years. But in 1967, I was able to scrape together the money for two more LPs, including Distant Shores. I listened to all those, especially DC all summer, as I began to plot my getaway from small town life. I guess the title song of Distant Shores was sort of emblematic for me that summer. I was so restless. I felt the world was passing me by. That restlessness stayed with me for years. And it always reminded me of the soundtrack for that summer.
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