I’m sitting here watching the auditions for American Idol. I can’t sing at all but I often wonder what song I would sing if I was auditioning. I really don’t know, I’m very eclectic in my listening pleasure. For the most part I don’t like jazz or opera everything else is fair game. Often I forget how much I like a specific song. It is kind of like watching TV. I always forget how much I love watching I love Lucy or the Honeymooners until I’m channel surfing accidently fall upon one of those shows.
So I’m sitting here watching American Idol and wondering if I’m ever going to post anything on my blog again. I can’t think of anything to write. Nothing too exciting is going on and frankly I just can’t seem to find the energy to write, although I do miss writing.
While I watch Idol I’m surfing the web trying to find something to write about. First I go to Face Book. My friend Ray Parker (The Mad Hatter) posts a clip of Sammy Davis Jr. performing Mr. Bojangles. I’ve love that song, especially when performed by Sammy. I once knew it word for word but I never knew Mr. Bojangles was a real person. Bill (Bojangles) Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of both the stage and screen. So I watched a clip of Bill Robinson in action, a clip from the Shirley Temple movie ‘Little Colonel’ and Bill Robinson is teaching little Shirley Temple a tap routine. I watched the Sammy Davis Jr. clip again with a new understanding of the song.
So I said to myself, I said, “Self, you can blog about this” doesn’t matter that nobody else cares. My blog, my rules. So I started typing. Then I started thinking. What if Sammy David Jr. Didn’t write the song? He didn’t! Jerry Jeff Walker wrote Mr. Bojangles. Okay, many singers don’t write their own songs, there are song writers that do that sort of thing. And yes Jerry Jeff Walker is a song writer, but he also performs. He is a country western dude and much to my surprise Mr. Bojangles is a country song. And my third least favourite type of music is Country music so I’m sure you can appreciate my surprise when I found that I really liked Jerry Jeff Walker’s performance of the song. More amazing is that Jerry Jeff Walker didn’t write the song about Bill Robinson. While Jerry Jeff was in jail for intoxication there was a white man who refused to give his name to the police and called himself Mr. Bojangles. In an attempt to lighten the mood in the cell Mr. Bojangles started tap dancing and the song was born. Then I said, “Self, who else sang this song?” I started listening. Neil Diamond did a decent job, Nina Simone absolutely incredible, John Denver was typical John Denver. Everybody and his mother recorded this song, but nothing like Sammy, I think it was because for some reason this song was very special to Sammy. But then I clicked on one more version. Sorry Sammy, I’ve always loved watching and listening to you and probably always will. But in this instance David Bromberg takes this song to a new level of greatness.
And you know without the internet I would probably never even thought to look any of it up.
I knew a man, Bojangles and….
PanningForGold 
Yay! The blog’s back! That’s what’s been missing lately!
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did a good job with the song. There is also a video on YouTube of Tom Jones (2nd Yay!) and Sammy Davis Jr. singing the song in a jail cell with Sammy doing some soft shoe. It’s a favorite video of mine – a good job by both.
don’t yay just yet, lol. thanks though, your constant support is always appreciated.
Brian there is a strange coincidence regarding this blog.
It’s funny my post on Face Book inspired it.
I too have a blog on my website, my son Raymond convinced me to start it.
I had all good intentions but often have blank periods.
Raymond is always telling me, “Instead of wasting good material for posts on Face Book write a blog on the subject, specially the vast knowledge you have of past old show biz acts etc.”
You have done a great job on my Bojangles post, wish I would have written something that good.
Thanks for the compliment and the inspiration. Believe me I know about those blank spots when trying to write.
I know however that you have such a rich history a vast knowledge base and so much life experience. I used to love when you came into the shop because you always had wonderful stories to share. Try, if you can to draw on those. I will check out your blog.
Hi Brian. Nice to “meet” you through my dad.
Good start on the blog.
Mr. Bojangles is a story isn’t it? And a great one at that. The challenge in writing is to tell a compelling story.
Most people have stories to tell. If they have lived well, their stories will be interesting. Mind you, I dare say someone who has spent their life in prison could tell a good story, if they thought well. Nelson Mandela comes to mind.
A Twitter friend posted a link to a story this morning about a successful young writer (South African, as well). Like most successful writers, she has a way to kick-start her creative juices: Just do it.
The takeaway of the interview is “You can’t learn anything from a blank page.” So write whatever is rattling around in your head. It might be dross, but it might be good fertilizer for something great.
I took that chance this morning. Having failed to produce my usual Thursday post, I awoke early and wrote the first thing that spilled out of my sleep-deprived head. (I may regret it later) 🙂
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for reading and the comments. I’ve tried the ‘just do it’ approach. Unfortunately that doesn’t always work for me. Once I have a wisp of an idea I can usually just do it, As of late there is just nothing in my head that makes it to the ‘paper’
So glad to see you’re back. I kept going to your blog all the time even though I’m notified when you write, just in case the computer missed it. Enjoyed the post. Now I’ll have to find it. (The song & dance) Once you were there you could have put a link in.
Yeah, now I need another idea. Arghhh!
[…] that day a magician friend of mine, Brian Matlin, having viewed my clips, wrote an interesting blog about all the things he had now discovered about “Bojangles,” which he had previously been […]