This song was given to me just before Valentine’s Day and I never put two and two together. So, yep, I missed having it posted by Valentine’s Day. Oh well… Please enjoy Kevin Weilock’s music – his rendition of “My Funky Valentine.” Thanks Kev for the track!
I heard this song many years ago and ignored it. It wasn’t until the summer of 2019 that I was reintroduced to it by Ed Fast from Ed Fast and Conga Bop. He recorded an amazing remake of the song in which he featured the vocalist Linda Ransome. The music he wrote was so full bodied and strong.
I listened to the lyrics and fell in love with what it said. From there I listened to, of course, Ella, Sarah Vaughn and Shirley Bassey. These are some of the voices that I truly love. Shirley’s version was my favorite.
I found this piano version done by Rob Landeros which I found to be absolutely haunting. I had to sing it. I had to.
I hope you enjoy it.
(lyrics)
There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far
Very far over land and sea
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise, was he
And then one day
One magic day he passed my way
While we spoke of many things
Fools and kings
This he said to me
The greatest thing
You’ll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return
From Wikipedia:
“Nature Boy” is a song first recorded by American jazz singer Nat King Cole. It was released on March 29, 1948, as a single by Capitol Records, and later appeared on the album, The Nat King Cole Story. The song was written in 1947 by eden ahbez and is partly autobiographical. It is a tribute to ahbez’s mentor Bill Pester, who had originally introduced him to Naturmensch and Lebensreform philosophies, which ahbez practiced. When Cole was performing in 1947 at the Lincoln Theater, ahbez wanted to present the song to him, but was ignored. He left the copy with Cole’s valet, and from him the singer came to know of “Nature Boy”. After receiving appreciation for his performance of the song, Cole wanted to record it but needed consent from the writer. Eventually, he tracked down ahbez.
I can’t live without you
Squirrels running across the ground to climb up trees,
Birds and their serenade in those trees,
The comforting shade from the leaves on the tree,
I can’t live without you.
I need
The grass under my bare feet,
surging the energy of the earth through me,
the endless beauty of a variety of plants and flowers
the smell of grass and other greenery.
I can’t live without you.
To stand at the foot of a tree and to look up in admiration and praise.
To stand in worship of its grandness and beauty.
Its kindness
Its love giving soul.
Shade me, cover me, tower over me in magnificence.
Its conversation full of ancient words and times
when magic was real for all.
I can’t live without you.
And Sun, you know I stand in worship of your rays
your life giving warmth
your love giving smile.
I can’t live without you.
Balance is nature. I can’t live without you.
I can go other places where you don’t exist and visit for a short time, but ultimately, I have to be where you are. The forest calls me.
I won’t leave you again. I can’t live without you.
Mwanamkee Kwa Mwuitoo
(Tomaca)
My son gave me a beat to work with. MY SON ACTUALLY GAVE ME A BEAT TO WORK WITH!!! I have to say it like that because he makes so many and I get, “Hey Mom, check this out” all the time.
“Oh, I like that one, can I have that one?”
“Nope.”
That’s our repetitious conversation that we have — allll the time. He creates such nice pieces and he never shares. He’s always like, “I’ve got something planned for this one…I’ve got something planned for that one…”
Sigh.
Though I surround myself with instruments, I don’t play any of them. I play “at” them and wish I could just magically develop skill and talent. Doesn’t happen that way though. So, a head’s up — when you meet musicians who are really talented, can really play and move you – tip them! Understand that it takes years and years to develop the skills and the ability to do what they do. Most bands are paid very little and it’s just not right….
Okay back to Ollie Ollie. So my wonderful, talented, handsome son in all of his benevolence gave me a piece of music. (Actually two pieces! I need to write to the second one still.)
I like message tunes the best and when I write, my mind gets stuck in message tunes and love songs. Thus, those are my topics. Take a listen and see if you understand the message behind in the song.
Thanks for listening. As always, I’d love your feedback. And if you want to take a look at the lyrics, they are here.
How nice of these ladies to ask me to their show. We were filming at the West Indian Center in Hartford, CT. The West Indian Center is a place where they also have huge parties and live bands. We were there filming for the talk show around 6:00 pm. They were having one of their huge parties that night and the DJ was already set up and absolutely booming the music. As they were making their preparations, they kept the music on. It was so loud that you could hear it throughout the whole entire facility. Jamaicans love bass and that bass was vibrating the walls of the small meeting room that we were in.
Vangie, one of the hosts, went over to the hall and asked if they could hold off on the music for a bit. Of course, they would not. I had to go over there and request that they keep the music off or very low for at least half an hour so our segment could be recorded. Luckily for us– they complied. But, after about 15 minutes, the music started again. I went back over and begged for 15 more minutes of quiet so we could finish. They gave us 12 and that was it! The music was back on full blast. Fortunately, we were done!
The ladies had to consider going forward whether or not they were going to continue to use that facility for recording. They would be able to do well as long as there were no festivities planned for the same day.
I always prefer to perform with a live band, because live music is just so awesome and organic. But, for this talk show, I sang with my background tracks. It came out okay.
Here are some excerpts of the show. It is posted on youtube.
