The Topic This Time is Sleep
I always heard conventional wisdom stating that people require less sleep as they get older; however, now we know our sleep requirement remains 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. I find I need to get an extra hour of sleep since I retired. My doctor tells me he sees sleep patterns of older people in his practice all over the place, some need more, some need less.
When I was in high school, I suffered from raging insomnia to the point I took Sominex, an old timey over-the-counter sleep medicine. Of course, no 16-year-old kid was supposed to take Sominex so I stopped after two nights. Michael Jackson and Prince had terrible problems with insomnia, and they both self-medicated to help themselves sleep. The great guitar player, Mike Bloomfield, suffered his whole life from chronic insomnia, and he self-medicated as well. And all three died way before their time/
For information on sleep and how we change as we age, here is a link to the National Institutes of Health website
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/good-nights-sleep
Remembering a Show-Stopping Performance
Phil Ochs, singer/songwriter and a troubled soul, hanged himself at age 35. In Memoriam, friends and family organized The Phil Ochs Tribute Concert, which occurred May 28, 1976, at The Felt Forum in New York City. The concert was broadcast live on PBS.
Featured performers included Bob Gibson, Patrick Sky, Danny Kalb, Eric Anderson, Tim Hardin, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tom Rush, and many more folk legends.
BUT, the performer who stole the show was Melanie Safka (Candles in the Rain, Brand New Key). She sang Phil’s song, “Miranda.” She was accompanied by David Doran and Jay Woolfe. Here is Melanie bringing down the house with her performance, check out the audience reaction at the end.
Remembering the Novelty Song of the Week
The Ballad of Walter Wart by the Thorndike Pickledish Choir. I first heard this record on KOMA, 50,000 watts out of Oklahoma City, at midnight driving like mad through a nasty wind-driven snowstorm in Idaho on my way from Seattle to Denver for Christmas. The song was written and performed by a disk jockey named Robert O. Smith. I wrote him in 1982 expressing how much I enjoyed the record and he very kindly sent me the 45.
Getting Old Ain’t for Sissies 