Friday, January 18, 2013

No. 503 – Rattlesnake / No. 503a – Fight the Good Fight

Performer: Live
Songwriters: Ed Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Gracey
Original Release: Secret Samadhi
Year: 1997
Definitive Version: None

Performer: Triumph
Songwriters: Rik Emmett, Michael Levine, Gil Moore
Original Release: Allied Forces
Year: 1981
Definitive Version: A Night of Triumph, 2004

As promised at the outset, here’s the first example of a full-blown 1/1A entry where a song joined the list already in progress but must be included. I have at least one more example of this coming.

I’m going to call an audible here and write about the new song—Fight the Good Fight—even though, of course, there’s nothing new about it besides the idea that it should be on this list, and this is where it should go (and I have other songs where the story I would tell for Rattlesnake would work).

In 2010, Mom turned 70, and I thought a good idea for a present for a person who has nothing and wants nothing would be to send her on the train back to California to see Jin and Bridget. She hadn’t seen her granddaughter in a long time, so that seemed as good a reason as any for her to visit.

It had to be the train, because Mom refused to fly. Besides, I’d made that trip: The train was better, as long as you had the time and the money to do it. Jina nd Scott liked the idea and said they wanted in. I had the money and would pay for Mom’s ticket. Scott would contribute by driving Mom from Columbus to Chicago and back, and Jin, of course, would act as hostess.

I didn’t make it for Mom’s birthday specifically; I just announced it then, because I wanted to wait for when Jin was between jobs and could have time to visit. That meant the trip was delayed till August. Mom was surprised but liked the present.

However, in July, Mom called and said she had to refuse the trip, even though she appreciated the gesture. It seemed she had developed a lump in her throat, went to the doctor and had a biopsy of it. It was cancerous. The plan was immediate surgery followed by chemo and radiation. So, you see, Mom said, in her inestimable way, of course, she couldn’t go on a vacation.

Well, this was an unforeseen development. As you can imagine, Mom was pretty upset when she told me, but I remember that I really didn’t think much of it at the time. After all, Mom had kicked lung cancer in the ass more than a decade before (story to come). This was just another bump in the road.

Mom said I didn’t have to do anything. Scott would take care of the transportation to and from the hospital—at least for the surgery—which was fine with me. I took point back in 1999 when I lived in Columbus. Scott was the closest.

Well, we’ll just have to beat this thing like the last time, I said. And when you do, the trip to L.A. will be waiting—incentive to fight the good fight and win, again.

Naturally, that’s what I think of when I hear this song, although I suppose to a certain extent I think about the time Scott and I went to Toronto in 1991. We saw a Blue Jays game, and Rik Emmett sang O Canada before the game, which was the first time I ever saw a celebrity—or at least one I cared about—sing a national anthem in person. It wasn’t Geddy Lee, but it still was cool.

No. 502 – Let’s See Action

Performer: The Who

No comments:

Post a Comment