Mine was more than 30 years ago. On a little bridge over The Serpentine, Hyde Park, London. Quite the setting. Had a blast that night with Jonathan and his buddy, my UK friends. February 1991. Or was it ‘90? Either way, it was nearly midnight. A good time. Maybe a better time in memory than in actuality, truth be told. It was cold as hell.
And why am I bringing up the topic? Today’s video show me singing the titular song of this post: High As a Kite.
So odd. I wrote this one around 1981. I seemed to intuit that the life of getting high would not lead me to a happy place. I plan to lead a simple life, no kids, no cat, no dog, no wife…. The breezy tone of the song masks the sad truth of the singer, who proclaims at the very end, “I got no life.”
This is the song I wrote about the kind of life I imagined awaiting me had I not changed my ways. I think it’s a very good song. And I have no idea how it came to me. Clearly (to me) the work of a Power Greater. A muse. A consciousness that knew more than I thought I did.
How did I find this video? Once again, thanks to sending out multiple videotapes to Southtree for digitizing, I get to experience moments in my life in a way that is somehow more than what mere memory can do. This material was captured by an 8mm video camera set on a tripod. I had harbored no great expectations for video. It was supposed to be just a record of what happened.
Today, this camera is not operational any more. But now I have its digital content on my computer. Along with the effervescent Maggie Gautier. and a host of other folks who happened to have made the scene that night in the early 2000s.
I chose this tape from my shelf because I remembered the performance going especially well. Perhaps the tape would offer confirmation.
Sure enough, it’s all there. That audience was so tuned in. They laughed at all the lines I’d always thought audiences should but rarely did (when I wrote the song.) The lines that most audiences didn’t find particularly funny, way back when. Like The Pope and The President both agree, it’s a matter of national security. What a thrill! Thank you, Maggie, for inviting me to perform.
Years later, I shot a music video of the same song, fully orchestrated with a band. My pal Jd Mathys co-produced with me.
What about you? Are there moments from your life that you’d enjoy seeing the tape of? Tell me. Or maybe it’s best that no body was around to capture anything. Like it is today with everybody carrying a mini production crew in their pocket. Totally nuts.
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