Talkin’ Music with Jack

All This Weather Got You Down

Yea, Me Too

By Jack Coll

I think the majority of our readers would agree that the weather over the past couple of weeks has really sucked for any type of outdoor activity.  Of course if you plow snow or sell warm winter clothes, then God Bless Ya Brother, but for the rest of us, yea it’s been rough.

Years and years ago I framed up some concert tickets I had laying around, and like a lot of my memories they get hung in odd places around our back workroom, or just downstairs wherever there’s an opening on the wall.  These tickets hang at the bottom of our steps at the workshop entrance and the other day I actually stopped to look at some of the tickets, something I felt like I haven’t done in quite some time.

So I’m check ‘in out the tickets and I see Fleetwood Mac tickets from September 11, 1982, I laughed a little as I noticed the tickets were $8.00 each, plus tax, a customer of ours just paid $450.00 for a pair of Fleetwood Mac Tickets last time around.

I have to admit my heart pounds a little whenever I think of Linda Ronstadt, she was like the queen of remakes but man I loved her voice then as much as I love it now.  We went to see her on April 10, 1980, once again I spared no expense to get tickets for Donna and I, and they were $8.10 each, did you read it correctly, EACH, plus forty cents tax for a total of $8.50 per ticket.

There are Bruce tickets from like 1979 or 1980 for $5.00 each, the Beach Boys, and the Four Tops among others.  Then on the top over at the right hand side a ticket struck a memory for me.  Donna and I went to see Stevie Nicks and Joe Walsh on June 27, 1983, I remember it well, it was a Monday night at the Spectrum.  It was the front end of the tour and Stevie was fresh, (A little high maybe, but fresh.)  The tour opened in Vegas on May 27, but only had five dates in front of us before going to Pittsburgh the following night.  It was “The Wild Heart Tour” and Donna and I were excited because Stevie’s band was made up of performers we’d seen with other groups.  Waddy Wachtel was on guitar, Bob Glaub was on bass, and I think Russ Kunkle or Liberty Devitto was on drums and again I’m not sure but it might have been Roy Brittin on keyboards.  A number of these guys played with Walsh, Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, James Taylor, and the Eagles among others.

I remember the concert and I remember that it was on that tour that Stevie Nicks wrote the song, “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You.”

So I finish my trip down memory lane looking at the tickets and head to the back workshop to cut and glue some frames.  (That’s what I do for a living.)  So the work shop was more than a little chilly, it was like one of them two degree days that the weather people kept shoving it down our throat, “The thermometer says it’s two degrees but it really feels like 165 degrees below zero so make sure you stay tuned to us because that wind chill could go lower)

While setting up the saws and under-pinner for work my mind drifts back to the Stevie Nicks and Joe Walsh show all those years ago because I remember Stevie Nicks in an interview one time talking about that tour, and how down she was feeling with a lot of things on her mind and things not going right.  Well I was also feeling a little down but I’m sure for different reasons, you know, Stevie had Stevie problems and I was down because it was so cold outside and I had to work in the harsh conditions of my downstairs work shop with temperatures hovering around a chilly 65 degrees, no laughing, it might have been 65 degrees in the lower shop but it only felt like 60 degrees with the wind chill, so overall I’m thinking Stevie and I had about the same level of problems.

Anyway back to the Tickets/Stevie Nicks/Joe Walsh/“Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You” song. So it turns out that early on in the tour Stevie was feeling somewhat depressed and down over a number of things and Joe Walsh could read it on her face.  So nearly two months later after the pair performed in Philadelphia they arrived in Denver, Colorado for a show on September 21, 1983.  When they hit Denver, Walsh rented a jeep, and took Stevie for a ride up into the snow covered mountains of Colorado, she noted that it was about a two hour drive.  Walsh wouldn’t tell Stevie where they were going but he did tell her a story along the way, it was a sad story.

He told her about his three year old daughter, and what a wonderful gift she was, and how well they had bonded in just three and a half years.

Stevie had noted that she had been complaining a lot during the tour about going out on the road and Joe decided to make her aware just how unimportant her problems were compared to worst sorrows.  So Walsh tells Stevie that he had taken his little girl to this magic park whenever he could giving them time together and Joe explained that they were happy moments.  The only thing his three year old daughter ever complained about in her life was that she was too little to reach up to the drinking fountain.

Stevie continued, saying that they were now driving up to this beautiful park called North Boulder Park, it was snowing a little adding to the snow already on the ground.  Joe parked the jeep and walked around to open the door for Stevie and help her get out of the jeep.  When Stevie looked up she saw that it was his baby’s park, “Emma’s Park.” Upon seeing the sign Stevie said “You built a drinking fountain here for her, didn’t you?”  She was right, under a big old tree was this little silver drinking fountain.  Stevie pulled away from Joe to walk over to the fountain where there was a plaque dedicated to Emma Kristen Walsh, and all the other young children who were too small to get a drink.

Emma was born in 1971 and died in 1974 as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to Nursery School.  Joe later wrote a song as a tribute to his daughter Emma called “Song For Emma” that appeared on his solo album titled “So What.”

When Stevie arrived back home in Arizona two days later, she opened her front door where her piano sat just inside the door, she sat down and wrote the song, “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You” as a tribute to Joe Walsh, and his daughter.  Stevie stated that the song took her no longer than ten minutes to write.

If you find yourself feeling down, listening to this song can go a long way with bringing one’s spirits to a mile high level, here’s the words, but make sure you visit U-Tube, give it a listen, spring is just around the corner.

“Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You”

Has anyone ever written anything for you

In all our darkest hours

Have you ever heard me sing

Listen to me now

You know I’d rather be alone

Than be without you

Don’t you know

Has anyone ever given anything to you

In all your darkest hours

Did you ever give it back

Well, I have

I have given that to you

If it’s all I ever do

This is your song

And the rain comes down

There’s no pain and there’s no doubt

It was easy to say

I believed in you everyday

If not for me

Then do it for the world

Has anyone ever written anything for you

In your darkest sorrow

Did you ever hear me sing

Listen to me now

You know I’d rather be alone

Than be without you

Don’t you know

So, if not for me, then

Do it for yourself

The song is a little deep, give it a listen, you’ll feel better!