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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Videos

  • Remembering Gerry Goffin…

    Remembering Gerry Goffin…

    The world lost a great lyricist yesterday. Today, I’m remembering Gerry Goffin.

    Carole King is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Since I was a small child, I’ve loved her very personal music which is often accompanied by meaningful lyrics. Because I’m such a Carole King fan, I follow her on Facebook. Yesterday, she posted that her ex husband, the father of her two daughters, and former song writing partner, Gerry Goffin, died of natural causes. He was 75 years old.

    During his lifetime, Gerry Goffin wrote the lyrics for seven Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers and a total of 59 Top 40 hits. Though Goffin was best known for writing hits with Carole King, he also worked with some other big names in the music business, including: Russ Titleman, Barry Mann, Carole Bayer Sager, and Michael Masser. Goffin was also one of the first people to recognize Kelly Clarkson’s talent as a singer. He hired her to sing demos in 1995, years before she became famous for being the world’s first American Idol.

    I don’t want to write too much about his personal life, because honestly, I don’t know much about his personal life. What I know about are his songs, which could serve as a wonderful soundtrack for people who came of age in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. In fact, I have an interesting anecdote related to Carole King and somewhat loosely to her first husband, Gerry Goffin.

    Back in April 2010, my husband Bill and I were on our very first cruise on SeaDream I, a small luxury mega yacht. It was a five night cruise in the Caribbean and, though we are definitely not financially well off people, it was populated by some folks who have ties to show business. One night, they had karaoke. It was very poorly attended. I think maybe six people showed up, most of whom didn’t want to sing. Since I love singing, I was game. I sang “I Feel The Earth Move”, which is a song that was written by Carole King alone.

    When I was finished singing, a lady approached me, along with a couple that she introduced as her parents. She complimented me on my voice and asked if I was in the music business. I said I was a housewife. We ended up hanging out for awhile and she told me that her husband works with Joan Jett. I later met her husband and was left with the impression that maybe he was in Joan Jett’s band. Her husband was wearing a USO baseball cap and told me he appreciated Bill’s service in the Army. Later, they had a brief conversation and the guy gave Bill his card. When we got home, I looked them up on the Internet and it turned out that the couple were Joan Jett’s managers and they were pretty much responsible for helping her to launch her career.

    Ever since then, anytime I listen to a song by Carole King– and so many of her best songs were co-written by Gerry Goffin– I think of meeting my friend Meryl and her husband, Kenny. In fact, when I shared Carole King’s status update about Goffin, Meryl shared in the sadness with me.

    One of my favorite songs penned by Gerry Goffin and Carole King is “Up On The Roof”. It was originally recorded by The Drifters. My favorite version is, of course, the one James Taylor recorded in 1979. I think it was the first song I ever heard by JT and it made me fall in love with his music. Who hasn’t fantasized about getting away from it all, even if it’s only for a little while, up on the roof?


    Gerry Goffin’s lyrics are so relatable in this song about escaping it all and gazing at the stars with someone special.

    Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote “Take Good Care of My Baby”, a song that was a hit for Bobby Vee and was later used in lots of commercials… especially for baby products.


    Catchy, isn’t it?

    He also helped write a huge hit for the late Whitney Houston…


    Whitney Houston singing Goffin’s lyrics at the 1986 Grammys… I have always loved “Saving All My Love For You”.

    And one for Glenn Medeiros, popular when I was in high school…


    I confess, I didn’t know Gerry Goffin helped write this song until this morning…

    Another one of my favorite songs by Gerry Goffin is another one he wrote with Carole King… It’s been covered by so many people, myself included.


    Carole King sings “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, her breakthrough hit with her ex husband, Gerry Goffin…

    The Shirrelles made “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” famous, but I love the way Carole King does it, especially when she’s backed up by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. And I love the words, which captures the feelings of any young woman unsure of her paramour’s love for her. Obviously, the song resonated with a lot of people besides me.

    Today happens to be my birthday and it hasn’t gotten off to the best start. It’s a little sad to be listening to these great songs by Gerry Goffin and knowing that there won’t be any more from him, now that his work on Earth is done.

  • Remembering Casey Kasem…

    Remembering Casey Kasem…

    I wasn’t surprised when I got the news on Father’s Day that he’d died. Today, I’m remembering Casey Kasem.

    Like a lot of other folks who get the bulk of their news from the Internet, over the past few weeks I became aware of the drama surrounding the last days of Casey Kasem’s life. His children from his first marriage to Linda Myers were at odds with his second wife, Jean Kasem, over the legendary announcer’s medical care. I read a number of disturbing accounts of what was going on between the kids and the wife, but I hesitate to draw conclusions. So much of what has been written about how Casey Kasem was cared for during his final days seems very dramatic. Given that I don’t know any of the people involved and recognize how the press can distort things, all I can say is that Kasem’s last weeks on earth were probably a lot less peaceful than they needed to be.

    Casey Kasem had lewy body dementia, a cruel disease that also affects my father. My dad is a year younger than Kasem is, though at this point, he still seems relatively coherent at times. Having seen lewy body disease and the dementia it causes up close, I can imagine that Kasem’s last days were very painful for his family. Lewy body dementia typically causes hallucinations and disorientation. In Kasem’s case, it also took his voice. My father has also lost much of his voice and that makes me realize how traumatizing it must have been for Kasem, to lose that one thing that he’d built his life around. My dad used to be a good singer but can barely speak now. It’s hard to imagine Casey Kasem without his famous voice; naturally, he stayed out of the public eye in his last days.

    I remember Casey Kasem so well as the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo and the announcer on the American Top 40 radio show. On weekend afternoons, I’d be cleaning stalls at the barn where I boarded my horse. The radio would be playing and nine times out of ten, it was Casey Kasem’s show that was on, counting down the nation’s favorite pop songs. His voice had sort of an everyman quality to it. He sounded like a next door neighbor rather than some golden throated announcer. That quality made Casey Kasem easy to relate to; he just sounded like a nice, friendly guy who loved music and wanted to share it. He could be your friend, even if it was only over the airwaves.


    Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 circa 1987.

    Maybe today’s young people don’t have the memories of Casey Kasem’s show like I do. It’s been awhile since he was last on the air and radio is not the medium it once was, given the many entertainment choices we have available today. But besides hearing him on the radio, I remember seeing Kasem guest on a number of TV shows, including one memorable episode of Saved By The Bell, a show that was initially popular in the late 80s and eventually became even more popular in syndication.


    Casey Kasem on Saved By The Bell, introducing “The Sprain”. Looks like he enjoyed that gig!

    Of course, Kasem wasn’t without moments of drama. Since his death, a couple of clips on YouTube have sprung up, indicating that he had a tendency to curse sometimes.


    There’s a lot of swearing on this video, but I have to admit I get a kick out of hearing Casey Kasem cuss.


    Casey Kasem does Shaggy on Scooby Doo.

    In addition to his lengthy radio career, cartoon voices, and television cameos, Casey Kasem’s voice also pitched a lot of products. He lent his famous voice to many different product endorsements, doing voiceovers for everything from the California Raisin Advisory Board to Chevron.


    Casey Kasem does a voiceover for a Dairy Queen ad circa 1986.

    I think of Casey Kasem as being sort of the voice of my generation. At 82, he lived a long and very productive life. He was famous for his long distance dedications and his familiar tag line, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars…” I hope wherever Casey Kasem is now, he’s among those stars and at peace.

  • June is going by too fast…

    June is going by too fast…

    It’s the last month of my husband’s full time employment… June is going by too fast!

    I’ve been awaiting June 2014 with a mixture of dread, anticipation, and excitement. I dread it because it may mean the start of hard financial times. My husband, Bill, is retiring from the Army and is job hunting. Some of his colleagues have had a tough time finding work and I fear the same for him. I anticipate it because it heralds a new beginning for us. Imagine it! We’re going to start a life that doesn’t involve the government telling us where we have to live (though in fairness, the places we’ve lived have been fine). And there’s excitement, because I’m curious about what’s next. I hope it’s good. I’m glad that the chances of my husband being deployed again are pretty much nil, unless there’s some kind of crisis and he gets recalled after retirement. I’m glad he’s survived having a commission for 30 years and isn’t haunted by so many of the things that haunt veterans, like PTSD and serious injuries and exposure to chemicals.

    The past weeks have been an emotional roller coaster, though. I’ve watched Bill apply for jobs, research housing solutions, network with people, celebrate, and enjoy his time off. This week, he’s mostly watched me cough and hack and complain about my sore throat. I think I picked up a nasty bug while bobbing for apples at a “hail and farewell” event put on by his soon to be former co-workers. At least I had the pleasure of throwing an apple at the guy who organized the apple bobbing activity. That was very satisfying. On the other hand, I was dumb to bob for apples. I don’t think my immune system is what it used to be.

    Adding to my apprehension is the fact that next Friday I will turn 42. Seems like yesterday I was 21 and these 40s years seemed very far away. Anyway, what does this have to do with Pop Rock Nation? Not a lot, really, other than my getting comfort and meaning out of music, especially when I’m stressing out over a life transition. I find music by certain artists very comforting. James Taylor has always been soothing to me, but in more recent years, I’ve gotten a lot out of Beth Nielsen Chapman’s music.

    Beth Nielsen Chapman has written a lot of great songs made famous by other singers. A lot of times, I prefer her original renditions to the covers done by other people. Her songs are always from the heart and have lyrics that anyone can relate to. She’s written some particularly good songs about death and loss, having lost her husband, Ernest Chapman, to cancer in 1994. In 2000, she suffered her own bout with cancer, which inspired her to release Hymns, her own arrangement of Catholic songs she’d grown up with. The songs had given her faith as she struggled through treatment. She’s written some very good love songs and breakup songs… and songs that are nothing but good stories. She’s even written about difficult parent/child relationships and the process of becoming elderly and/or sick.

    As the days pass, I have a feeling I’ll be listening to more Beth Nielsen Chapman. Hell, I may even sing some of her songs.


    “Beyond The Blue” seems like an appropriate song for our rapid life changes.


    “Free” is a great song for cheering up… I think it might have been inspired Chapman’s experiences with cancer.


    This is my version of Beth Nielsen Chapman’s “All I Have”, which is a wonderful love song.

    In any case, I’m hoping to keep my optimism alive, despite the photo I used for this post. Wish me luck!