Phil Maq

For as long as I’ve been on the radio, and definitely for as long as I’ve been writing a blog, I will occasionally make a reference to a song being “One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded!” (GSER)

I would usually follow that by saying that I would eventually start a category for it, but then never get around to it.

Well, now I’m getting around to it!

It will pretty much follow the pattern of The Most Awesomest Song of the Day.

I’ll select a song to celebrate and then give my thoughts about it. Nothing really brand new here that hasn’t been done before. But since I have a website, I can collect them and lay out what my own greatest songs are.

My radio show, “Prime Time Theme Attic,”  is on Monday nights 8PM-10PM ET but is on hiatus because of the pandemic.

Here’s the link for when the show returns: http://rdo.fm/r/4qntu )

Even though I always emphasize new music and artists, it’s always fun to take a short drive through the legendary artists, since they influenced those other artists!

But a song doesn’t have to be old or done by a legendary Theme Attic Hall of Fame member to be thus honored.

I can think of several songs that are only a few years old or less that I could identify as One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded.

This will be fun, and hopefully you will join me on my journey…at least sometimes!

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This is the first picture I’ve posted about my dad.

There’s a couple of reasons why this is so.

I’ve never really good with pictures.

For most of my life–until I started DJing, I always acted like I was in a witness protection program.

My family was large and everybody took pictures.

A lot of pictures! 

I felt that anybody else taking pictures just added to the burden, so I tried to avoid them.

In other words, I don’t have too many pictures of him and me to begin with let alone where they might be.

I used to spend a lot of Sunday mornings with him-mostly not saying anything but flipping through music stations to find something I wanted to hear.

There was a definite generation gap.

I’ve said before that my dad was very old.

In fact, I only know him as an old man. I was the second to last child out of six, so both of my parents were set in their ways by the time I showed up.

I know I confused them because I wasn’t like my other brothers and sisters.

I was interested in baseball…and music.

When I was a kid, the sun never set on either of those interests for me, as I usually pursued both late into the evening.

Occasionally, my dad would ask me a question or start on a subject that had mutual interest.

But more often than that, we would both remain silent until he criticized my choices in music.

So it came as a shock to me when I ran across the picture of my father in this post.

One of my sisters had it hanging on the wall at her house.

I had seen my parents’ wedding picture that hung on the wall for, oh, so many years.

But this was different.

Who was this smiling dude?

And on top of that, with a fiddle in his hand?!

I was vaguely aware that he played music in his younger days, but I sure hadn’t seen a picture.

I only knew that he played accordion because a roomful of people had asked him to play it one Sunday afternoon when I was probably in grade school.

He had turned them down several times, saying that he hadn’t touched it in years. He even claimed that he wasn’t sure where it was.

But one of my brothers knew and hauled it out for him.

So, he settled in, and whipped off a few tunes.

I think he must have been pretty good because it sounded fine to me. It wasn’t distasteful.

I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it.

But it was the last time he ever played.

Now I have a picture of a persona that I had no idea even existed!

We might have had some common ground, and I always like listening to music stories!

I’m sure there had to be some good ones!

Look at that smile!

But, sadly, that’s something that is not meant to be.

Well, let’s get to today’s song, “Let the Rest of the World Go By” by Willie Nelson and Leon Russell, two Theme Attic Hall of Fame members, from a very underrated “One for the Road” album.

I was hooked on Willie, like most of the country was at the time that the album came out, and I think I had the song on a vacation tape.

I really don’t remember why he and I were together at the time, (we were probably going somewhere), but I remember him leaning in to listen and then declaring, “That song is one of the most beautiful songs ever written!”

Hey! I sound like him!

That’s something that I only heard that one time!

I’m not sure what version of the song he knew, but he was ok with Willie and Leon‘s version.

The slow churchy arrangement, with nice harmonies, made it sound like living out West was a religious experience!

I absolutely agree!

This one goes out to you, Dad!

One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded is “Let the Rest of the World Go By” by Willie Nelson and Leon Russell!!!

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