When the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band came out, I was in high school. Back in those days, we thought nothing of gathering in person to share in the bounty of someone procuring a new album. (Boy does that sound quaint in these days of solitude and earbuds.) I listened to it the first time with a group of 15 close friends, and collectively, we were blown away, all of us staring at each other with our mouths open. Don't get me wrong, we had an inkling of how advanced the Beatles were with their previous two Beatles albums, Rubber Soul and Revolver, but even so, Sgt. Pepper was a quantum leap. For its stunning production, to its wide array of song styles, to what would become touchstones, embedded in the culture through all these years. Who would have thought that one of the most familiar songs would have been the somewhat goofy "When I'm 64"?
Yesterday Gurf Morlix hit the big 64, as we at Music Fog raise a glass to him in salute, with a chorus and verse of "64" in our hearts. Gurf wisely heads for the hills in summer, leaving the heat of Austin behind for the cool green pastures of a cabin in Canada. You can catch him in Toronto next month, before he makes his way back stateside. Today's song is a pretty rare thing for Gurf, it is a love song which can be found on the album, Gurf Morlix Finds The Present Tense, which was released in 2013. The song was co-written with Grant Peeples, and us Foggers got to record it back in 2011 at AmericanaFest in Nashville. Happy Birthday Gurf!
- Jessie Scott