A Songwriter's Journey

In the Fall of 1970 I was a Freshman at MacArthur High School in Decatur, IL! Because of my bad knees, I got special approval to attend MacArthur despite the fact that Arizona Drive was in the Stephen Decatur High School District! MacArthur was only 2 stories with a small elevator but SDHS was FOUR stories and no elevator!
I had a LOT of changes to go through that Fall. One change was for the first time since Kindergarten, I was not in the same school as my baby sister, Judy who is 14 months younger than me.
When I was 7 years old I twisted my right knee really bad on our swing set and spent months- off and on- in the hospital (I’ll write a separate post about that in the future). The school district recommended I take 2nd grade over since I had missed so many days.  So, from 2nd grade onward, Judy and I not only went to the same school – we were in the same grade! Now that she was going to SDHS and I was at MacArthur it was a big adjustment for me!
Another change was that my music endeavors had been successful at Mound Junior High, playing in two talent shows, accompanying choirs as well as singing in choir. But, High School was like the big leagues to me at that age! 🙂   SOLITARY MAN represented my first rejection in “show business”. There was a Talent Show that Fall of 1970. They held auditions. I had asked my friend, Pat Tosetti, to again back me up on guitar as he had in Junior High.  We did fine during the audition in the gymnasium. There was a girl folk singer who was our main competition. She also auditioned well. The judges couldn’t decide which of us to choose – only one slot was available for that type of performer so they asked both of us to come back for a 2nd audition. But this time it was in a classroom. I am not sure why but this time I was very nervous! I am sure my poor performance was the reason I was not selected but they told me later that they thought we were equal in talent, but they felt since she was a Senior, this would be her last chance to perform for her peers.
I appreciated them trying to ease the pain of rejection but it still stung! I mean, that was 45 years ago and I am feeling the same angst right now re-telling this story as I did back then!
When I was deciding which songs to include on my CD “Musical Reunion” last Fall, Solitary Man was one of the songs I planned to include. But the more I listened to it, I tended to be hyper critical of my vocal and decided to leave it off the CD. Maybe it was because of my sub-conscious going back in time to the audition? It is a decent version though so I added it to my SoundCloud account so I can share it now with everyone. I did all the instrument and vocal tracks.
I hope you enjoy my cover version of Solitary Man!
love to all, Dave