auld lang syne

When I heard the news Joe Cocker died, I thought, too soon. Already? He was just 70. Radio Woodstock was rocking his music that afternoon, and Cocker’s uber classic rendition of that Beatles song at that famous music festival in the late 60’s had me both rocking out and crying, heading down County Route whichever.

Cocker sang like he meant it, you know? He felt it. He growled it from some primal place. And that performance, with those awesome star boots and off the hook sideburns, remains as powerful today, 45 years later, as it must have been then. It rocked some worlds.

Woodstock was more my brother’s generation, and that, barely– he was 15 going on 16 that summer. I was 7, and about to have the second corrective surgery at Bethesda for a congenital defect. I survived, evidently, here to tell the tale. Here’s to you, surgeons, you worked some magic.

Cocker’s performance freaked me out a little when I was younger. Woodstock too– he and it seemed so uncontrolled, so raw, and coming from my family, this seemed a dangerous thing. As I got older, I grew to love him.

A little more than a week away from the turn of the year 2014, hearing that rendition of With A Little Help From My Friends blew me away more than it might have at some other moment.  It’s surely been with a little help from my friends that I’ve navigated the landmines of the past few years, this year as much or more than the others. And I have lost a few friends along the way.

So here’s an auld lang syne to the friends who’ve gone the distance. Near and far, of long date and more recent, some who have stepped in for a moment or two like angels and then as quickly disappeared: here’s to you, for lending an ear, a shoulder, a hand. Whether virtual or flesh and blood, through an email, in the aisle of a supermarket, on the phone or on my doorstep, you’ve shown up. There have been quite a few days you’ve made the difference between a very very bad day and one that’s survivable. And that’s huge.

So, friends, lend me your ears, and I’ll sing you a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key…

For auld lang syne. To 2015.