Last Song, People!

Realizing this is the final song on my Philmont playlist, I was reminded of the introduction to REO Speedwagon’s live version of “Ridin’ the Storm Out” on their Greatest Hits disc. “Last song, people!” shouts Kevin Kronin. Coincidentally, in searching for that particular clip on YouTube, I came up with a different live version in which Kronin talks about the band finally leaving it’s Midwest tour and encountering the Rocky Mountains. Wow! Serendipity. Or perhaps mere coincidence. But the fact is, this last song is all about the Rockies. 

Couple of pages from an early Philmont Adventure
Guidebook. With my notes.

I’ll confess now – because I’m just that kind of guy these days – that I doubt I ever heard “RockyMountain Way” at Philmont. At least I don’t remember it. But it seemed a fitting finale.

In the liner notes to “Look What I Did!”, Joe Walsh says “Rocky Mountain Way” was about the rejuvenation after  his split from the James Gang. He explains it here, too.  To sum it up, he says: “It was special then, and the words were special to me, because the words were like, 'I'm goin' for it, the heck with feeling sorry for this and that', and it did turn out to be a special song for a lot of people.”

I think there’s more in the liner notes, but I don’t feel like dredging them out of the basement tonight. The point is, that like Walsh,  I found revival in the Rockies. OK, it’s different. I wasn’t breaking from something when I moved, if only seasonally, to the Rockies. But, as I wrote in my biography for my 2004 Group Study Exchange trip to Sweden and Denmark, I grew up in the Rockies. Granted, the bio focused on my venture to Yellowstone National Park in 1988, when I ultimately met my wife-to-be.  I rather like my borrowed prose.

I can’t find the original, at least not in a readable format. Made the mistake many years ago of using Lotus WordPro. Now I can’t find a copy converted to Word or even plain text. Alas. Anyway, it started out borrowing from John Denver. “I was born in the summer of my 22^nd year… “ Denver sang, “He was born in the summer of his 27^th year, coming home to a place he’d never been before.”

That was my sentiment with Philmont, though I had been there before. And when I wrote the GSE bio it was in reference to working at Yellowstone in my 22^nd year of life. And the national park was indeed a place I had never been before.

Both were experiences of growth.  Both places immediately felt like “home.”

I want to go home.

I envy my eldest daughter, who has been in the Southwest – Albuquerque and Santa Fe – this month for work. I am also proud and encouraged that she, too, loves the Southwest, at least in her limited experience. Do we not all love those shared experiences with our children?

Embrace them. Cherish them. And seek to find home.

PHILMONT PLAYLIST

Mountain Music - Alabama

Seven Bridges Road – The Eagles

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.

Music Time (live) - Styx

Slew Foot – James McMurtry

Snowblind (live) - Styx

Y’all Come Back Saloon – The Oak Ridge Boys

Carolina In The Pines – Michael Martin Murphey

Dream On (Single Version) – The Oak Ridge Boys

Cool Clear Water (Remastered) – Sons of the Pioneers

Malagueña – Carlos Montoya

Big Iron – Marty Robbins

Wildfire – Michael Martin Murphey

Roll On (18-Wheeler) - Alabama

Allentown – Billy Joel

Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffett

Man of Steel – Hank Williams Jr.

Worse Comes to Worst – Billy Joel

A Country Boy Can Survive – Hank Williams Jr.

Rocky Mountain Way – Joe Walsh