I could have easily …
Let this song die on the vine.
As sung twice, once at his 50th birthday (by cassette tape) and a second time very unrehearsed (yes, it had been some years) at his official retirement in 2017.
I don’t even know if that’s an expression. But I didn’t. Why? Let’s just say I’m not sure other than it might have something to do with this webpage. I mean — where do you store old writings from a previous life, if you can say that a mere 20 years ago can be qualified as that. In any event, Ron retired. And the person that replaced him retired, too. And yes, I wrote a song for him, too. But then out of the blue I ran across Ron’s farewell song. As for Ron leaving, it’s a bit of a misnomer — He’s still around. Only I don’t see him that much. And perhaps even more bizarrely: I wrote this song for his 50th birthday party, which I couldn’t attend, and now twenty some odd years later, I’m a couple years older than that. The thing about Ron — He’ll always be older than me no matter how old I get. He was both my boss, an enigma (as all good bosses should be) and a person whom I greatly admire, and try to live my life by. As for the song, I’m so glad I found it, handwritten after all the years. I don’t think I ever typed it into a computer, and probably never will. But check out the BobbyAngel.Org website in the coming weeks for a live rendition of the song. Thank God for hording. Thank God for old friends!
P.S. Sung to Dylan’s It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding (or at least, as best as I could play it). No joke: I originally recorded this song to Ron on a cassette tape. Not sure if he still has it, or even if he does, if he could still play it on a cassette recorder which are harder and harder find these days.
