Cal.E.'s Korner

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can

And when it's time for leavin'

I hope you'll understand

That I was born a ramblin' man

Well, my father was a gambler down in Georgia

And he wound up on the wrong end of a gun

And I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus

Rollin' down highway 41

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can

And when it's time for leavin'

I hope you'll understand

That I was born a ramblin' man

Alright

I'm on my way to New Orleans this mornin'

Leaving out of Nashville, Tennessee

They're always having a good time down on the bayou

Lord, and Delta women think the world of me

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can

And when it's time for leavin'

I hope you'll understand

That I was born a ramblin' man

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Forrest Richard Betts

Ramblin’ Man lyrics © Sentric Music, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

C.: Why are you so down, d.c.?

d.: How can you tell?

C.: Well, although you have a mask covering your nose and mouth, your eyes look sad, your shoulders are slumping and your countenance seems sad.

d.: You’re very observant, Cal.E.

C.: Most animals who live with humans are. That’s why, when you feel sad, your dog will nose you or your cat will ask for a head scratch or just place its head in your hand. We know more than people think we do and we’re trying what we know to do to cheer up our humans.

d.: Yes, that sounds reasonable. I’m sad because I just read the obituary of the man who wrote the song that I posted at the beginning fo this blog.

C.: What was his name?

d.: Dickie Betts.

C.: Was he one of your friends?

d.: No, I didn’t know him, but he was one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band, the band that invented Southern Rock.

C.: Oh, was he young when he passed?

d.: No, not really. He was in his early eighties, and he had a drug problem when he was young. Also, performers like Dickie Betts usually live lifestyles that aren’t conducive to long lives. That’s why, I suppose, many of them go back to performing when they outlive their life expectancy, as Dickie Betts probably did. They don[‘t think that they’ll live that long, so they spend all of their money. I doubt, though, that even Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood could spend all the money that they’ve made over six decades of performances and best sellers. I think that they just enjoy the lifestyle of playing over two hundred concerts a year, although they’re all as old as Dickie Betts was or older.

Dickie Betts and Greg Almond, along with his older brother Duane more or less invented a specified genre of Rock. When I was younger, it was called “Southern Fried Rock,” but that name changed to simply “Southern Rock.” That genre encompassed such bands as The Almond Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd, two of my favorite bands. Their sound was a little hard rock and a lot of driving guitar, with a folk/country influence. It was different from heavy metal, but couldn’t be classified as soft rock or country. It had it’s own defining characteristics.

C.: So, if Dickie Betts was a druggie who died in his eighties after living a hard lifestyle, isn’t that expected?

d.: It is, but what made me sadder was reading that a lady my age had died. I didn’t know this lady, but, if her obituary was accurate, she was a special individual. I know that sixty isn’t young, but it isn’t considered to be old anymore, either.

It did remind me of one of my best friends, though, who died at the age of fifty-nine from a Glioblastoma…

C.: What’ s that?

d.: It’s a brain tumor that has “fingers” into the brain. Progress has been made recently to treat this type of brain cancer, but it is still terminal in almost every case. Since my friend didn’t drink or smoke and kept her weight at what the charts consider to be the ideal by exercising and eating healthfully, it was a shock to learn that she was terminal.

This is similar to what happened to my favorite football player, Walter Payton. He died of liver cancer in his forties even though he tried to keep in shape even after he retired from the NFL. He, by all accounts, was also a very clean living person.

C.: So, one person you knew well and three you don’t know died. Isn’t that expected on this planet?

d.: It is, but no one knows when it will occur. I have relatives that have lived into their nineties when no one expected them to, and others who died relatively young. A lot of the ones who passed in their middle and younger years were considered healthy, but didn’t live long after their illness (usually cancer) was diagnosed. 

My point is that no one knows when or how s/he will die, so it’s best to do what you can while you can…Where are you going, Cal.E.?

C.: I need to send out more query letters for my book. IDK how much longer I have to live and I want it published before I die!

d.: Well then, I guess that’s all the time we have for today, folks. Please join us tomorrow for another episode of Cal.E.’s Korner.