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During the last few years, my intellectual and emotional energy has been devoted to three areas—the first involved pickleball. There was a group of players on public courts not far from me who cheerfully whacked the plastic ball across the net and expressed considerable joy and excitement at the results. I thought, "This looks like fun."
Perhaps because this was at the beginning of the great Covid lockdowns, I also began to explore new intellectual areas of interest. I discovered "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs" at songs.com where Andrew Hickey analyzed the history of rock and roll which was very much the soundtrack of my youth.
Later, after making many new friends through pickleball, my friends came to me for advice on their medical problems. Since they knew I was a doctor, and because I was their friend, they felt compelled to tell me everything about their life.
I remain passionately involved in my small pickleball community. I've been exploring the meaning and significance of the huge number of songs and albums that I was aware of but hadn't tried to understand. And most of all I have become a volunteer patient advocate for my friends who look up to me for medical advice. Anyone who wants my advice only needs to bring me their imaging, studies, and medical records and I will try to make sense of it.
It is a strange journey that continues to evolve. The medical problems seem to get more and more complicated. I have learned that the first cut is the deepest. And that is both exhilarating and humbling.
Discussion (11)
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I had the album that contained that song. The version I had had been put out in Germany. (I probably still have it buried in a closet.) I see no evidence of it in Wikipedia's discography for Stevens. Go figure.
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Yeah, I always associated that song with Rod Stewart not the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens but I have learned everything is more complex than it seems at first.
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Especially with songs.
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Another great example of that is the song "Love Hurts" written by Bouldleaux Bryant and covered by every great band of the last half century. His name comes up a lot when you begin to explore the roots of rock and country music.
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Indeed. I immediately thought of the Roy Orbison version, although the Everly Brothers recorded it first.
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