Runtu I liked punk and ska I was much too cool USA

Runtu : I liked punk and ska, and / http://proza.ru/2023/11/24/994  / I was much too cool to like music like his.

2023 автор / http://proza.ru/2006/04/14-339 / Рюнтю Юри 17 Лeт 2006-2023 на Проза. Pу / http://proza.ru/2023/11/02/800 / Runtu is a technical writer and editor living in Salt Lake City. A collection of articles published by Runtu / 2024

2023 автор / http://stihi.ru/avtor/yuri2005 / Рюнтю Юри 18 Лeт 2005-2023 на Стихи.Pу / http://stihi.ru/2023/11/02/3340 / 2024

Этo учит : распознавать гнев до его превращения в насилие.
Этo учит : обуздывать ярость, если она вспыхивает


2023 : Tiktok : Runtu, Uri Telegram : Автор и 62 книги о Россиянах на 2-DVDs в Библиотеках Москвы : ' О Pусском 3арубежьe в США, Европе и Австралии ' : Общение и Опыт жизни Выдающихся личностей - помог мне прожить счастливую жизнь на Западе и в России : Библиотечные Фонды России: Hео-трансцендентальный театр 2000-2004 / http://www.proza.ru/2006/04/14-339 / Media TV Radio Celebrities Russia / http://proza.ru/2021/03/31/135 / 2022

2023 - 2006 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri TikTok : Canberra ACT Australia / http://proza.ru/2020/06/16/1154 / Фото: 2006 : Московский Образовательный Центр США в здании Всероссийской Государственной Библиотеки Иностранной Литературы им. Маргариты Ивановны Рудомино: Москва Россия 2006 / http://www.proza.ru/2016/05/05/1124 / Дар - из 62 книг писателя на двух ДВД-дисках для Библиотечных Фондов США: лично передан - Директору Центра Марисе Фушилл ( Mrs Marisa Fushille : USA ) - 62 книги автора ' О Pусском 3арубежьe в США, в Европе и Австралии ' для Библиотечных Фондов России: лично переданы - госпоже Ольге Валентиновне Синицыной ( Mrs Olga Sinitsina : Deputy Director General : Russia ), директору Всероссийской Государственной Библиотеки Иностранной Литературы. Photo: 2006 : Academician Yuri Ryuntyu and Marisa Fushille and Olga Sinitsina in Moscow Russia 2006 / http://www.proza.ru/2006/04/14-339 / Media TV Radio Celebrities Russia / Iouri Runtu: French : Rudolf Noureev : La Mort a Paris / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English / Canberra ACT Australia : the Neo-transcendental theatre : 2006 - 2022.

2023 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri : От автора " 1 - 12 Книг о друзьях Руди Нуреева - которыми я горжусь и люблю : Общение и Опыт жизни этих личностей - помог мне прожить счастливую жизнь на Западе и в России " / http://proza.ru/2020/06/16/1154 / WWII Australia | Australian writer and journalist : Yuri Ryuntyu | book : Uri Runtu : Rudolf Noureev : La Mort a Paris : Hео-трансцендентальный театр : 2022.



When I was a kid, James Taylor was the guy
my sisters liked to listen to.

I liked punk and ska, and I was much too cool
 to like music like his. But then I started dating my wife.

 She didn’t like anything I liked musically,
 not even Neil Young

(I know, who doesn’t like Neil Young?).

 On one of our first dates, we went skiing,
 and she wanted to listen to some music.

I dug around the floor of the car and
found That’s Why I’m Here, which my
roommate had left in there.

 “Whose James Taylor?” she had asked,
 but she had instantly fallen in love with his music.

She has often said that

 “You Are My Only One” from that album is “our song.”

And sometimes when she was having a bad day,
 I would sing “Something in the Way She Moves” to her,
and it would always make things better.

Over the years, we’ve found a few artists we both like

(Alison Krauss, Diana Krall, the Beatles),

 but she’s always had a real connection

with James Taylor’s music.

The first CD I ever purchased was James Taylor Live
as a gift for her to go along with the CD player I bought her.

A couple of years ago,
 I came home to find her crying while she was
listening to his Christmas CD, which she had just bought.

So, as we have aged, we’ve watched Mr.
Taylor lose his hair and age as well.

 1998’s Hourglass has some really lovely moments
 of wistfully approaching aging and death without the comfort of faith.

This year for our
 21st anniversary,

 my wife bought two tickets to see
James Taylor and
 his “band of legends” at
the Usama Amphitheatre
 in Salt Lake City.


 One of my wife’s coworkers said she wouldn’t
 go to a concert like that because
  it would make her feel old.

I figured that the last three concerts I went to made me feel old,
 so maybe this one would make me feel my age.

We ended up spending two nights in Park City and then drove down
 into the city on Monday for dinner at the Market Street
Grill and the concert.

It was very hot and dusty when we arrived, and the crowd was,
 as I had predicted, mostly middle-aged folks who had grown up
on “Fire and Rain,” but there were a lot more young people
than I would have expected.

We sat on the fifth row, just to the left of center,
 behind two twentysomething boys who didn’t quite look
like James Taylor fans.

 It turns out they were there with their mother,
 who sang along with every song while her sons looked bored.

The sun was still blazing hot when Taylor emerged with his band

(electric guitar, keyboards, sax, trumpet, drums, bass,
and Latin percussion, plus four backup singers).

And yes, he did look sort of shockingly old at first,
his bald head fringed with gray hair, his perpetually
gangly build seeming more fragile, and his face looking
worn and slightly wizened.

But once they got going, he seemed to regain some of his youth,
and he was clearly enjoying himself.

He is promoting a new CD of covers (called, strangely enough, Covers), so he opened with the Temptations’ “It’s Growing.”

Mixed in with the usual hits were Junior and the All-Stars’
 “(I’m A) Road Runner,” Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,”
 George Jones’ “Why Baby Why,” and a decidedly un-Elvis like “Hound Dog,”
 which he said he had patterned after Big Mama Thornton’s 1952 version.

I have to say that the musicians were uniformly excellent,
and Taylor’s voice seemed as clear and sweet as ever.

At one point he mentioned that his drug use had obliterated part of the seventies for him, and I remembered having read how he had shaken a heroin addiction and had cleaned up in the eighties.

His music had always seemed so mainstream and consumer-friendly to me,
 but his life had apparently not been so mainstream.

He seems to have regained his footing and put things back together.

I thought that my life has moved in the opposite direction
(well, minus the drugs and alcohol, anyway):

 I look like the same old put-together Mormon
I used to be, but my life has unraveled in fits
 and starts, and sometimes I feel like I can
relate to those lost years of Taylor’s life.

Thankfully, the music was too good,
and I was having too good of a time to dwell on my life’s failures.

What I noticed the most was the broad grin on my wife’s face,
 which never broke, not even during the break between the two sets.

Yes, she was disappointed that he didn’t sing our song,
 but it really didn’t matter.

We held hands, and she stood and danced and clapped,
moving to the music, still smiling.

 That was all I needed.

I wouldn’t have cared where we were or who was singing.

It was just one of those great moments.

It’s good growing old with her.


2023 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri TikTok : ' Проза занимает место в Литературе только благодаря содержащейся в ней Поэзии...' Рюноске Акутагава : 1892-1927 / Член Японской Мафии, гениальный ученик - Великого Литератора Осаму Дазая : Hео-трансцендентальный театр : 2022.

2023 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri TikTok : Особо приятно и радует Стэнфордский университет - Студенты в Университетах из США / USA : The Stanford University : California / : учатся по моим : 62 книгам по Истории , Искусству и Культуре : Древней Руси : Императорской России : СССР и Новой Демократической России : Документы, Мемуары и Летописи Жизни : 3 000 Россиян : с 10 по 21 век / http://www.proza.ru/diary/yuri2008/2016-04-12 / Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English / Canberra ACT Australia : the Neo-transcendental theatre : 2022.