Time Out Ten
My Old Man
The Tom Green Septet
For this item you need to be able to stop for ten minutes.
We are often moving on to the next job, the next meeting, scrolling down social media, taking the next call ......'Time Out Ten' asks you to stop for ten minutes and listen to a particular piece of music; to find a time when you won't be interrupted, when you can put in/on your headphones and chill out. Ten minutes isn't long.
My Old Man is a song from Joni Mitchell's 1971 classic album Blue. It is thought that some of the songs on the album (My Old Man and River) were inspired by Joni's relationship with Graham Nash (The Hollies; Crosby, Stills and Nash); the relationship was already troubled when Joni left for Europe in 1970, and from there she sent Graham a telegram to let him know that their relationship was over. The lyrics to My Old Man do not reflect their troubles, but rather show a real affection. Here are some of the lyrics and you can listen to Joni's recording here.
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My old man, he's a singer in the park
He's a walker in the rain
He's a dancer in the dark
We don't need no piece of paper from the city hall
Keeping us tied and true no, my old man
Keeping away my blues
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But when he's gone
Me and them lonesome blues collide
The bed's too big
The frying pan's too wide
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It is a great tune and Tom Green's Septet does it justice in our video for this month's ten minutes time out. The tune is included on their album Tipping Point - do check it out, it has some excellent tracks. The Septet is: Tom Green (trombone); James Davison (trumpet, flugelhorn); Tommy Andrews (alto sax, soprano sax); Sam Miles (tenor sax); Sam James (piano); Misha Mullov-Abbado (double bass) and Scott Chapman (drums).