ROD
Rod & Sunny: Photo by Bob Gentry 8/5/1999
A Thought for Today
Be careful with your confidences and thrifty with your secrets.
This letter from Rod Mckuen's website, A Safe Place to Land
brings back some memories of my treks to New York City and
Carnegie Hall and when I thought Rod's music and poems
spoke for all us love seekers and peace niks. . . .
APRIL 29, 1969 CARNEGIE HALL
Dear Rod: I'm happy to take this opportunity to write you and tell you how pleased I am to re-discover your work, and to know you are "alive and well" as they say still doing what you love and by the looks of your Safe Place To Land website, doing very well. Everyone is looking forward to your new book and enjoying reading new poems on this site. I first saw you in concert April 29, 1969 in Carnegie Hall from my front row seat. I was only 19, very naive and took that trip to NYC alone on a bus from Baltimore. I was thrilled to see you there and I guess like an early groupie (which I had no idea about), I got your attention by yelling ROD ROD and handed you a post a note explaining how I discovered your music (The Sea) after a trip to Ocean City, Md. I was really thrilled when a year later, your live concert album came out and it verified your sweet comment you made to me after the audience sang Happy Birthday to you and you said to the audience, "you're very nice", then you looked down at me and said, "mmm, you are nice." When you came to Baltimore in October that year and performed at the Morris Mechanic, I saw your early show and later a girl who worked at the Omni Hotel told me you where staying there. She and I tried to meet you after your second concert at that hotel once you were back in your room by interrupting the room delivery boy cart and trying to meet you that way. Your manager came to the door, explained how exhausted you were, but went in and came back with a small book of poetry, signed by you for each of us, and I must say you found your poem called Susan and autographed that one for me. I say thank you, belatedly and want to let you know, your creativity speaks for so many people at times in their lives where sometimes words are hard to come by or expressions are hard to convey, or we are able to share feelings so universal when we sometimes feel its just us, alone, in this hardass world. (I love to hear Sinatra's version of your song "A Single Man") I look forward to catching up on your wonderful work and hopefully, enjoying you in concert in the near future. Thanks for the opportunity to talk with you personally this way. You've made me smile many times and that's always been what people have said is one of the nicest things about me. I would feel privileged to hear from you sometime. Stay very well, Rod. your lifelong fan, and a friend, Susan Sands. Dear Susan, Thanks for being so persistent. I loved your story regarding New York and the one about our evening together (sort of) in Baltimore. Yes, these things happen on the road and I remember them.I don't know if the New York City Birthday Concerts will ever resume but they became a tradition that I looked forward to fulfilling for ten years in a row.I will go back on tour though, but please no more midnight visits to hotel rooms. Usually I'm so exhausted after a concert that I'm in bed and asleep as soon as possible, especially since more likely than not, I've a plane trip early in the morning to another city.The very best thing about having a Website is that I get to hear from old friends and those I've encountered while concretizing around the world. Love and appreciation, Rod
Rod & Sunny: Photo by Bob Gentry 8/5/1999
A Thought for Today
Be careful with your confidences and thrifty with your secrets.
This letter from Rod Mckuen's website, A Safe Place to Land
brings back some memories of my treks to New York City and
Carnegie Hall and when I thought Rod's music and poems
spoke for all us love seekers and peace niks. . . .
APRIL 29, 1969 CARNEGIE HALL
Dear Rod: I'm happy to take this opportunity to write you and tell you how pleased I am to re-discover your work, and to know you are "alive and well" as they say still doing what you love and by the looks of your Safe Place To Land website, doing very well. Everyone is looking forward to your new book and enjoying reading new poems on this site. I first saw you in concert April 29, 1969 in Carnegie Hall from my front row seat. I was only 19, very naive and took that trip to NYC alone on a bus from Baltimore. I was thrilled to see you there and I guess like an early groupie (which I had no idea about), I got your attention by yelling ROD ROD and handed you a post a note explaining how I discovered your music (The Sea) after a trip to Ocean City, Md. I was really thrilled when a year later, your live concert album came out and it verified your sweet comment you made to me after the audience sang Happy Birthday to you and you said to the audience, "you're very nice", then you looked down at me and said, "mmm, you are nice." When you came to Baltimore in October that year and performed at the Morris Mechanic, I saw your early show and later a girl who worked at the Omni Hotel told me you where staying there. She and I tried to meet you after your second concert at that hotel once you were back in your room by interrupting the room delivery boy cart and trying to meet you that way. Your manager came to the door, explained how exhausted you were, but went in and came back with a small book of poetry, signed by you for each of us, and I must say you found your poem called Susan and autographed that one for me. I say thank you, belatedly and want to let you know, your creativity speaks for so many people at times in their lives where sometimes words are hard to come by or expressions are hard to convey, or we are able to share feelings so universal when we sometimes feel its just us, alone, in this hardass world. (I love to hear Sinatra's version of your song "A Single Man") I look forward to catching up on your wonderful work and hopefully, enjoying you in concert in the near future. Thanks for the opportunity to talk with you personally this way. You've made me smile many times and that's always been what people have said is one of the nicest things about me. I would feel privileged to hear from you sometime. Stay very well, Rod. your lifelong fan, and a friend, Susan Sands. Dear Susan, Thanks for being so persistent. I loved your story regarding New York and the one about our evening together (sort of) in Baltimore. Yes, these things happen on the road and I remember them.I don't know if the New York City Birthday Concerts will ever resume but they became a tradition that I looked forward to fulfilling for ten years in a row.I will go back on tour though, but please no more midnight visits to hotel rooms. Usually I'm so exhausted after a concert that I'm in bed and asleep as soon as possible, especially since more likely than not, I've a plane trip early in the morning to another city.The very best thing about having a Website is that I get to hear from old friends and those I've encountered while concretizing around the world. Love and appreciation, Rod
posted by Susan @ 12:44 AM
