“Blowing In The Wind” and The History Of Toll Booths In America

How many toll booths must we pass Before we realize their past?

How many roads have we traveled on That have been marked by toll booth signs?

How many cars have paid the fee To cross a bridge or use the sea?

How many workers, day by day, Collect the tolls we have to pay?

How many times has the toll road changed To accommodate the times and range?

How many hands have touched the coins That have passed through toll booth windows?

How many times has the traffic stalled As we waited to pay the toll?

How many drivers have cursed and fumed At the time it took to pass through?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind The answer is blowing in the wind

How many towns have been saved By toll revenues that came their way?

How many highways were built and planned

Through the money raised by toll booth hands?

How many times have we complained About the toll booths that we’ve maintained?

How many times have we been grateful For the tolls that kept our roads stable?

How many more toll booths will we see As we journey across this land?

How many more coins will we throw Into toll booth baskets down below?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind The answer is blowing in the wind.

Meeting Burt

Meeting Burt

Alison Anders approached me after the Burt Bacharach Loser’s Lounge in December 1995. She came to the show to see her friend J Mascis sing. She was in NYC editing her film “Grace Of My Heart”..

“You’re not going to believe this, but I got Burt Bacharach to write a song with Elvis Costello for my film. My music supervisor hooked it up”, she told me after the show. They were coming to New York to record it, and she said she’d let me know if it was OK to stop by. I filed this away, figuring it would be incredibly unlikely, but awesome if it should happen.

A few months later, she called me. Back then I had a day job, PubWorks. PubWorks was an editing house for school textbooks and kind of the official day job for Loser’s Lounge performers. Julian Maile worked the night shift after me. Sometimes we would leave CDs for each other. For some reason, I stayed home that day and picked up the phone when she called (I was a habitual call screener back then). “They’re just mixing the song today, so it’s pretty chill, so I think you can stop by”. The studio was Right Track Studio on 48th street, which was “music row” (RIP Manny’s and Sam Ash). I knew David Terhune worked in midtown, so I called him and invited him to join me. I grabbed a program from the show and a cassette (back then, sometimes my friend Garry Rindfuss would record the show on his Pro Walkman).

Read more: Meeting Burt

2022 Year In Review

Happy 2023!

First of all, if you haven’t added “The Christmas Song” to your holiday playlists, please do so for next year!

Vocal version (featuring Madison Massey):
https://orcd.co/xa9jnb5

“Switched-On” Synth Version:
https://orcd.co/w09ja1x

But the big news of 2022 was meeting my amazing daughter, Mara Keyes. The story of how it happened is here.

Update: Since then, Mara and I have hung out several more times in New York, New Jersey, St. Paul and La Crosse, Wisconsin. Our relationship continues to grow with each visit and the FaceTime catchups and text messages (comparing Wordle scores, among other things). It’s been incredible having her in my life, and I look forward to what the future will bring.

Music updates:

The Joe and Mara Story

Please meet my daughter, Mara Keyes.

Back in 1992, I fathered a daughter in Minneapolis that was put up for adoption in Duluth, Minnesota. I don’t feel the need to share the details, but I was in a touring rock band at the time. Maybe you can connect the dots.

I always knew in the back of my mind that this person would someday try to find me. I wasn’t sure when, or how, but I knew it would happen. The birth mother gave her my name years ago and I’m pretty easy to find (incidentally, neither of us currently have any contact with the birth mother).

2021 Year In Review

Greetings Friends and Happy New Year!

It’s a little bizarre writing this, in the midst of another surge of COVID. There was so much optimism earlier in the year, when vaccines became available. In some ways, it’s hard for me to distinguish between 2020 and 2021. it’s all one big “pandemic blur”. My second dose of the vaccine was March 31, on the eve of the anniversary of Adam’s Schlesinger’s passing, which seemed especially poignant. Sid’s reopened in late April and the week that Sid’s reopened there was a tribute to Adam put together by his bandmate Jody Porter. I wasn’t sure if I’d be ready to perform with the band, so I contributed a synth-oriented version of “Utopia Parkway”: https://youtu.be/BR7WXvqfz-o

Glenn Miller’s Band Was Better Than Before

Thoughts on The Little River Band’s “Reminiscing”

Amy and I randomly collect old coffee mugs from thrift stores. I’m not sure where we got this mug, but I know we’ve never been to Clarinda, Iowa, Glenn Miller’s birthplace.

Every time I drink coffee from this mug, I think of “Reminiscing” by the Little River Band. According to Albert Goldman, “Reminiscing” was John Lennon’s favorite song. Although we’re not really sure we can trust anything Albert Goldman wrote about John Lennon, May Pang says that while they were together, “Reminiscing” was “their” song: “Oddly, with all the fantastic music he wrote, ‘our song’ was ‘Reminiscing’ by the Little River Band.” Also, Frank Sinatra allegedly called “Reminiscing”  “the best 1970’s song in the world.”