MountainMornings

You all know the story of the dentist who didn’t get into medical school, well our little 50th Reunion Big Chill Drama Club couldn’t get tickets to Hamilton, soooo last Sunday we all went to see the Carole King musical “Beautiful” instead. What a prolific songwriter she was – born in 1942, her generation was where Beats and Blues met Rock and Roll. This is a very short list of her early hits:

Will You Love Me Tomorrow – the Shirelles 1960

Take Good Care of my Baby – Bobby Vee 1961

Some Kind of Wonderful – the Drifters 1961

The Loco-Motion – Little Eva (who was previously her babysitter) 1962

Up on the Roof – the Drifters 1963

King was actually a Klein, a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn. Like a lot of us in that pre-birth-control generation, she found herself pregnant and married at the ripe old age of 16. Her husband turned out to be her lyricist, and together they wrote the songs that topped the Billboard list year after year. She was a classically trained pianist with the talent to thrive in a cut throat industry, and a mother who took care of her kids.

“Beautiful” is about King’s early life and career, and it’s about what it took for her to strike out on her own; her divorce from that first husband was the spark that led her to try out her own lyrics and find her gorgeous singing voice. Later writing 25 solo albums, including Tapestry, and winning four Grammies, being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The “Beautiful” soundtrack won the Best Musical Theatre Album in 2015.

The same week we were reminiscing with old classmates from the 60s saw another singer songwriter win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Bob Dylan holds a special place in my heart, for his anti-war lyrics and his raw vulnerability. Sometimes I just smile when I think back about my generation – we may not have been the “greatest” like those WWII vets, but we had the BEST music!

A lot has changed in the Theatre District since I used to drag my kids to Broadway musicals. There are painted naked ladies behind white lines in Times Square and two Minnie Mouses cruise the street arm in arm between other characters dressed as Lady Liberty. A few homeless men were getting rich carrying cards that said “Give me a dollar and I won’t vote for Trump!”

I’m not good in a crowd, and the last time I was in the Big Apple it wasn’t that jam-packed; people would leisurely window shop porn stores in Times Square and try to avoid the police. The porn is gone now but that prickly sensation of teetering on the edge of something either horrible or wonderful was still there.

If I learned anything over time, it’s not to have any regrets and to follow my spidey sense. We will never get anywhere if we fear taking that leap into the unknown. After all, I married Nathan Detroit didn’t I?!

“If you grow up in (or around) New York City and you’re paying attention, you have a better spidey sense than anyone. It prepares you well for the rest of the world. You learn to listen to the hair on the back of your neck.”
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

the Castmates of Guys and Dolls