It’s Saturday afternoon, I’m sitting at an outdoor cafe in the Prenzlauer Berg^ section of Berlin. There’s a big cup of Earl Grey tea next to me, the city is alive with folks on bikes, pedestrians and babies in strollers. I heard Vietnamese, German, English, French and I think Farsi being spoken all within five of my steps. Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon”* is on my earbuds now and I feel like I’m in and out of time.
I wish it was raining just a little bit, that would make it perfect.
I’ve been in Berlin this week. I had things planned that I couldn’t do. I spent the better part of the past two days in bed with a tweaked back. I tried to still do some things but I couldn’t even stand up straight and walking was a chore.** I don’t want to make the tour diary a medical report but I’m doing better today.
The other day I stopped at Hansa Studios and saw Rocco. We had a great time when I was here recording my “October” album and he was pretty stoked that I came back to deliver a record to him. We talk about recording and different styles and he is absolutely the type of person you want running a studio. He tells me about a recent German Schlager*** session and how one of his friends was sort of questioning how he could enjoy that and Rocco explains how the musicians work and how he can find something he likes in nearly all music. And then he tells me about a technical challenge they had recently where they had to record 120 tracks simultaneously. Not only is that impressive but I wouldn’t even want the job of labeling all the tracks.****
I got out of my taxi in front of the hotel, walked down to the laundromat and somewhere along the way hurt my back. I can barely get my back pack off when I get to my hotel room, I hit the bed and don’t move for about 2 hours. The hotel is in Prenzlauer Berg so that’s good for me. I like the energy here. Since I can’t move, I opt to sit in a chair and write. And I write and write and write. I have a file that I imported a couple of years of tour diaries and I’m trying to go through them to see which ones would actually be book worthy.***** I’m able to pick up on certain themes in my diaries - one being how much time I spend driving and my tours seemingly routed by someone who had no access to a map of Germany. The Bremen to Berlin to Amsterdam to Chemnitz in 4 days was particularly asinine.******
I’ve moved on to Nick Drake’s “Bryter Layter” album. The trees on this street have just started to change. “And the leaves cried as they fell, too soon, too soon.”******* This restaurant have things they put on the table that look like a toy Big Ben clock but have a spinning blade on top and they keep the bees away.
I walked a couple of miles today. I got all the way over to Mustapha’s Gemüse kebab. The four best words in German: Hähnchen Döner mit Gemüse. Yeah, Mustapha’s has become a touristy type of “the döner place to go to in Berlin” and the line is crazy long. I got there early today and only had to wait 30 minutes in line. By the time I left the line had tripled in length. The dudes there - they don’t hurry. They make each one special. And watching him delicately choose the toppings and veggies for my döner, you’d think I was the only one in line.
Man, the bass line in “One of these things first” is so subtlety amazing. Whenever I sing along with this song I feel like I’m in a music video.
I had never listened to or even heard of Nick Drake until the Garden State soundtrack. Nick died at age 26 after releasing his third album. He was on a major label Island Records and sold less than 4,000 albums during his lifetime. He got good reviews in the music mags of his time but was reluctant to promote and perform. Posthumously, his music was used in a VW ad and that boosted sales by over 70,000.
I think of folks like Nick Drake when I think of my own music and legacy. Legacy, what a word. Reading the latest review I got in American Songwriter, it’s really great - I get good reviews, my music doesn’t suck, I bust my ass to bring my music to as many places as I can but I’m still struggling. I mean, does the world really need another 50 year old dude singing songs? It’s so hard to cut through the noise.
Maybe Nick Drake is not the best thing to listen to when you’ve been alone for a couple of days on tour and are wrestling with darkness.
“I could've been a sailor, I could've been a cook
A real live lover, I could've been a book
I could've been a signpost, I could've been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock
I could be here and now
I would be, I should be, but how?
I could've been
One of these things first” ~ Nick Drake
^It’s one of the more gentrified and hipster areas of Berlin. I do love it here. I passed a store today that sold nothing but antique typewriters.
*If you want to listen along while you read, start on track 5 “horn” and then you will be listening at the same time as reading. More of an interactive experience.
**For clarification purposes - I have two herniated discs in my back. I’m usually fine but sometimes I move wrong and then I’m in a world of hurt. Yes, I’ve been to docs and all that - new insurance and no one could see me the month of August and then I was gone. So my next appointment is in late October for P.T.
***Schlager is the absolute un-coolest music you could listen to. It is a form of pop music heavy on the sentimentality and melancholy. If Anne Murray was German and making contemporary pop music, it would probably be Schlager. On the Irish side, it is probably closest to Celtic Thunder stuff.
****It makes me wonder how Jason Day would color code and group them all. “Ok, woodwinds are all brown. Percussion is all red…”
*****I have currently edited 1200 pages down to 95.
******Reading that made me mad all over again at Arne, the guy booking that year. I read it and feel like Wesley in Princess Bride - “I just sucked a year of your life, how does that make you feel?”
*******From “20” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.