I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life

I've had the old Mac Davis song, Roll and Roll (I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life) on my mind a lot lately. With a few word changes, the song could be about me as I pursued a career making fine art. So much of the art world has changed over the years, even since I started making and selling art.

To make matters "worse," my pictorial interests are in the art of the past, especially the 19th century. I know traditional art still supposedly sells in this country, but the obsession with impressionism, digital art, fantasy, animé et al leave me feeling like I don't belong in this century. In southern California, the avant garde seems to be what people are looking at for their homes and offices. Stuff that I don't do. Art world --  "I was always just one step behind you."

We'll see what happens during the rest of 2016. After that, if I haven't moved forward, painting may become a hobby, possibly with occasional sales only. Maybe.

First Light -- Yosemite Valley     24" x 36"

Roll and Roll (I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life)

Oh, I can still remember
When I bought my first guitar
Remember walking from the shop
To put it proudly in my car

And my family listened fifty times
To my two song repertoire
I told my mom her only son
Was gonna be a star

Well, I bought all the Beatles records
Sounded just like Paul
I bought all the old Chuck Berrys
78s and all

And I sat by my record player
Playing every note they played
I watched them all on tv
And copied every move they made

Aw, rock and roll, I gave you all
The best years of my life
All the dreamy sunny Sundays
All the moonlit summer nights

I was so busy in the backroom
Writing love songs to you
While you were changing your direction
And you never even knew
That I was always just one step behind you

Well, '66 seemed like the year
I was really going somewhere
I was living in San Francisco
Wearing flowers in my hair

Singing songs of kindness
So the world would understand
The guys and me thought we were more
Than just another band

Aw, rock and roll, I gave you all
The best years of my life
All the crazy, lazy, young days
All the magic moon at nights

I was so busy on the road
Singing love songs to you
While you were changing your direction
And you never even knew
That I was always just one step behind you

Well, '71, I was all alone
When I met Sarah Jan
I was trying to go it solo
With someone elses band

And she came up to me softly
And she took me by the hand
She listened to my problems
And she seemed to understand

And she followed me to London
To a hundred hotel rooms
Through a hundred record companies
Who didn't like my tunes

She followed me back to Tennessee
Where she finally made me see
I'm just a plain old country boy
That's all I'll ever be

Aw, rock and roll, I gave you
All the best years of my life
All the dreamy, sunny Sundays
All the moonlit summer nights

And though I never knew
The magic of making it with you
I'm getting along with my country songs
Doing what I was born to do
But I was always just one step behind you

Aw, rock and roll, I gave you
All the best years of my life
All the dreamy, sunny Sundays...