Todd Klein's Blog, page 18

My Music: IT GOES BEYOND WORDS

The lyrics from my notebook, about 1970. This song was intended as a parody of the kind of bland, saccharine love songs that often appeared on the variety shows my parents watched, like Perry Como and Andy Williams. It was also, I think, making fun of my own inability to get anywhere with a real romance as opposed to daydreams. Here’s the song: It Goes Beyond Words.

Here I am after high school in the summer of 1969, in a photo booth in Seaside, New Jersey. I went there with a male friend, Randy, for a brief vacation after my summer job ended, and perhaps I thought I might meet a girl, but as usual that didn’t happen. I always had female friends in grade school and high school, and I could talk to them about common interests, or sometimes make them laugh with silly comments or drawings, but when it came to dating, I had a hard time even bringing it up, and if I did, I was gently deflected. I went on exactly two dates in high school, and neither went well or was repeated. The fact that I was a skinny nerd, terrible at sports, whose favorite activities were reading, drawing, writing, and walking in the woods didn’t help. Things were not any better in my first year of art school, but after that…there were developments.

It Goes Beyond Words lyrics and song are © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: CAPT. KIDD’S CAT by Robert Lawson

1984 paperback reprint of the 1956 hardcover.

This book was intended to attract the same readers who had enjoyed Lawson’s “Ben and Me” about the mouse behind Ben Franklin’s success, but the story is not as appealing.

McDermot is a black and white cat with a ruby ring in his ear, a ship’s cat for the pirate Captain Tom Tew, who had retired to a fine house in Rhode Island, which McDermot enjoyed. But word comes that times and politics are about to make trouble for pirates, and Tew decides to ship out again. He leaves his cat with New York merchant William Kidd, also a former pirate, but Kidd’s fortunes are about to change as he becomes a pawn of British and American politics. Kidd is charged with the task of hunting down pirates in a new ship, Adventure Galley, much against his will, but his commission comes from the king of England, and is backed by several powerful men of his court, so Kidd must oblige. Kidd doesn’t want to hunt down his pirate friends, and puts out word to warn them. His commission is only good for ships flying under the French flag. At home, Kidd’s wife Sarah, a battleaxe, is fine with his new job as long as he brings her back the Turkish carpet she wants. McDermot goes along for the voyage, even though he expects trouble.

Kidd’s voyage does not go well, as he finds no ships to capture for some time, and much of his crew mutinies. After many hardships and misadventures, he finally takes a valuable prize and heads back toward America, but on the way finds out that politics have made him a scapegoat, a declared pirate himself, and in danger of hanging if he’s caught. Kidd refuses to believe the King and his supporters will turn on him, and that becomes his downfall.

Unlike “Ben and Me,” McDermot does not talk to people in the story, though he does narrate it. The cat provides help by letting Kidd know when he detects trouble or treachery through the use of his claws on Kidd’s knee, and the beleaguered captain takes the cat’s advice to heart…until the end, when he won’t listen and is captured. The story is interesting, but rather sad in the end, and as a reader I became frustrated with the bad luck and treachery that stymied a good man at every turn. The cat’s own story ends well, but that wasn’t enough to make me like the book overall. It is full of what seems like authentic pirate information, and Lawson’s version of Kidd’s life is at least plausible when compared to known facts. Wonderful illustrations, as always, though the enpaper map is a bit hard to read at this small size. Mildly recommended.

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My Music: THE FOG

Front and back of my art school ID card

Another of the songs probably written in my first year of art school. We didn’t have a lot of fog in my home town of Pluckemin, NJ, but we had some, and I may have also seen it on my commute to school in New York City. Here’s the song: The Fog.

The lyrics as they first appeared in one of my notebooks from about 1970. It’s all there, but you need to read down in columns, and of course I repeated the first verse.

Part of the living room of my Highland Park, NJ apartment where I recorded this and many songs, the photo is from 1978. You can see the two Teac reel-to-reel decks at center, though I was mainly using the newer, slightly larger quarter-track one by now. For this song I doubled the guitar track, adding harmonies, as two of the tracks, and also doubled the vocal track, using harmony in a few places. I was happy with the way it came out, though the doubled vocal isn’t perfect. It’s close enough. I don’t have a photo of this room set up for recording, but you can just make out a mic stand without a mic on the right edge of the cinder block shelving. On the top few shelves are boxes of reel-to-reel tapes I recorded. In addition to my own songs, I did some by my brother Russ, and a few others. I also recorded things off the radio as well as parties and other events.

The Fog recording and lyrics are © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION’S FILLY by Walter Farley

Cover and illustrations by Milton Menasco

While clearly a series, Farley’s horse stories have more variety and are better written than American series books like The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift. This one has some similarities to “Son of the Black Stallion” in that it’s about preparing a young horse for a big race, but there are many new and interesting developments to the overall story.

Henry Dailey has been working with Alec Ramsey as his trainer for some years now, and both are busy at their upstate New York home and breeding business, Hopeful Farm, but Henry is restless, and quietly missing the excitement of racing. He’s never owned a horse himself, but keeping an eye on Kentucky horse sales, sees that Black Minx, the first filly sired by The Black, their prize stallion, is going up for sale. Minx has only raced once, and it was a disaster: she went through the fence and put her jockey in the hospital. Henry thinks he can turn her around, and hopes he can buy her for a price he can afford. When the sale comes, things work in his favor, and he comes home with the filly for $1,000.

Minx turns out to be contrary, a biter, and full of tricks. She was treated as a family pet by her first owner, and learned all kinds of bad habits. Henry and Alec begin a new training regime they hope will cure most of that, but she’s also reluctant to run fast unless she gets the bit in her mouth and can bolt out of control. This does not bode well for racing, but she does have her sire’s speed and endurance. The tale of making Minx into a race horse that could possibly win the Kentucky Derby is full of twists and turns, and memorable races, horses, and people that bring the racing world of the early 1950s to life. When they bring Minx to Kentucky, things get more difficult.

Recommended.

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Rereading: POWDER QUAY by Philip Turner

Cover art by Trevor Stubley

There are two series by Turner about the northeast England coast town of Darnley Mills, one in the present day, and one in historical times. This one is historical, at the time of World War One, and like others in the historical series, it’s more serious and emotional than the lighter present day books.

Young Richard Bridgebolton is home on leave from the Navy, where he’s been trained and assigned to the ship H.M.S. Grangemouth as a Midshipman, but in practice he’s the gofer to Captain Rolleson. The ship is being refitted, allowing all the crew a holiday leave, and when Richard arrives at Bridgebolton Manor outside of Darnley Mills, he finds his father, injured in the Boer War, but still able to get around with a cane, his mother, the staff, and also Emma Darnley, a family friend whose father has just been killed in fighting at Flanders. The two young people share their sorrows, and begin to fall in love, but before that gets far, Richard is suddenly called back to duty. His ship has been relaunched with the refit not done, as all ships are ordered to the North Sea to repel German warships. Dickie, as he’s known in the family, finds combat frightening, but does his duty until his ship is sunk. Rescued from the cold water by a friend and neighbor, Bob Hassock, also serving on the ship, Dickie finds himself senior and in command of a small crew of five in the damaged lifeboat, two with serious wounds. Can Dickie use his compass to pilot them to shore and Darnley Harbor before they sink or the wounded men die?

An excellent and exciting read full of action, heart, and wise insight. Characters and settings from the other Darnley Mills books add interest if you’ve read them. Recommended.

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Rereading: PORKO VON POPBUTTON by William Pène du Bois

This is another in the series of short books on bad habits, here gluttony. Pat O’Sullivan Pinkerton has a serious eating problem, and the last straw for his parents is when his weight destroys half their home, so they send him to a boarding school, President Coolidge School for Boys on Lake Brown Bear next to the Canadian border. It’s a school focused on sports, especially ice hockey, and their rival, Canada’s Queen Mary Boarding school, is at the other end of the lake.

Naturally Pat does not fit in, and is mocked by his roommate and classmates as well as the teachers, who bestow the title nickname among others, and do their best to cut his eating, but are only minimally successful. When Pat is named the coach of the ice hockey team, though, he begins to find new interest in life and school, and his roommate Jim Finger teaches him how to be a goalie. Despite his size, Pat begins to gain respect for his dedication to the team, and when Jim Finger is injured and Pat must take his place as goalie in the big game against the rival school, everyone is looking to Pat with high expectations. Can he fulfill them?

A fun read, and fat shaming is not the main thrust of the book as you might think. Recommended, and the illustrations are excellent.

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My Music: POT LUCK BLUES

Pluckemin bedroom, Sept 1971

Here’s another song probably written during my first year of art school, fall 1969 to spring 1970. Above is part of my bedroom from a year later showing the ambitious mural I started to paint on the wall. It was never finished and later painted over. That’s my desk under it. As a middle class white kid from New Jersey, I can’t say I knew much about the blues, but I was probably influenced by a few talking blues on early Bob Dylan records like THIS one. The Talking Blues form was begun by country singer Chris Bouchillon in 1926 with THIS recording, and popularized by Woody Guthrie, which is where Dylan got it. My version doesn’t follow the same structure and chord pattern, I used a different blues pattern, but the idea and humor are at least similar. Here’s mine: Pot Luck Blues.

Above are the lyrics from my 1970s notebook. One thing different in my approach is suggesting these various “blues” are gremlin-like creatures tormenting me. No idea where that came from, but I still find it mildly amusing. Unlike the talking blues referenced, I sang the last line of each verse. No air conditioning in that house, and it sounds like it was written on a hot day. The food references suggest I was hungry. The guitar playing starts out okay, but as it goes on there are a number of missed notes. When I recorded this around 1977, I didn’t like the song enough to get that right, this was more of a “for the record” recording, but I think the talking/singing is okay.

Pot Luck Blues lyrics and recording are © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THE SEA EGG by L. M. Boston

L. M. Boston is one of my favorite writers of novels for young readers, especially her Green Knowe series. Her other books are good, too, like this one, which is also illustrated by her son Peter Boston.

Toby and Joe are on holiday at the seaside, on a hilly coast with cliffs, caves, and tide pools, which they enjoy exploring. One day a friendly fisherman shows them something unexpected he caught in his net, a perfectly egg-shaped stone. He explains that sea-shaped stones are never egg-shaped, and the boys are intrigued and buy it from him, planting the sea egg in their favorite tide pool. They hope it’s a real egg that will hatch into something wonderful, and it does. One day the egg is gone, but in the pool instead is a small child with fins for feet, a male merbaby, or triton. They become friends, and as the triton grows, he involves them in ever-more daring adventures.

Boston’s magic is subtle and believable, but full of wonder, and her language and writing are also magical. This is a short book at 94 pages, but feels crammed full of satisfying events. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE BASSUMTYTE TREASURE by Jane Louise Curry

Cover art by Fred Marcellino

Unlike the Abaloc books by Curry I’ve been rereading, this is a stand-alone mystery thriller that hits all the right notes for me.

Tommy Bassumtyte lives with his grandmother and aunt in a small New England town, but is given the opportunity to travel to England to stay at his family’s ancestral home, Boxleton House. There his uncle Thomas lives with a housekeeper and gardener to help, but Thomas has had to give up his passion, mountain-climbing, because of an accident that left him with injuries that are slow to heal. He and Tommy soon become friends, and Tommy is fascinated by the ancient manor house and its contents. There’s a family legend about a treasure from the time of Queen Mary of Scotland, a family friend, and Tommy is determined to find it to help his uncle, who is struggling financially. He’s aided by Gemma, daughter of a neighbor, who is training as a museum curator in London, and between them, clues begin to surface involving strange family events and artifacts from the time of Queen Mary, but their plans are threatened by Mr. Yemal, a very rich foreigner who has decided he must have Boxleton House to live in, and who uses his wealth to make things difficult for Thomas. This fascinating treasure hunt is enhanced by a ghostly advisor, a secret room and passage, a hidden coffin, a painting and a tapestry with covered secrets, and more exciting developments.

Recommended, an exciting read.

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Rereading: THE INNKEEPER’S SONG by Peter S. Beagle

Cover art by John Jude Palencar

After reading mostly novels aimed at children and humorous material, this heady, dense, complex novel was a nice change, and reminded me how much I like Beagle’s writing. The narrative technique is unusual, with about a dozen first-person narrators, each chapter (and some are quite short) having a different narrator.

The central locale is The Gaff and Slasher, the place for travelers to stay in the small northern town of Corcura. Three women who travel together are drawn there. Lal is an adventurer and swordswoman, her friend Nyateneri is equally well known for being a deadly fighter. The two are searching for their friend and mentor, an elderly wizard. On their journey, Lal has somehow raised a dead girl, Lukassa, from the river where she recently drowned, and taken her along with them. Lukassa remembers nothing of her former life, but she was beloved by Tikat in their small village, and Tikat witnessed the resurrection. He steals a horse and follows, though he has a much harder time surviving than the experienced women do. Then there’s the fox that travels with the women, who sometimes takes on the shape of a man who helps Tikat. When they reach the inn, more characters come into the story, including the innkeeper, several of his servants, and three assassins on the trail of Nyateneri. Then there’s the wizard, and his former student and now mortal enemy who is trying to kill him. All these characters interact at the inn, and in the nearby town and countryside in one hot, dry summer, and it soon becomes clear that almost all of them have secrets and a troubled past, secrets which gradually come forth under the stress and danger of the situation. Will Tikat ever regain his lost love? Will the wizard survive the terrible attacks of his rival? Will the assassins succeed in killing Nyateneri? These and many more questions are answered, as layers of story unfold in this masterful novel.

Highly recommended.

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