Ever get the urge to head bang to Deep Purple?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUn6Ool0P9w&hl=en]

I do.

My dad played organ in a band called Uncle Wiggly's Rubber Band when he was a teenager, so I grew up listening to a lot of keyboard-based heavy rock: Deep Purple (Jon Lord on Hammond), The Doors (Ray Manzarek on Fender Rhodes), Emerson, Lake & Palmer (with the inimitable, "Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond" Keith Emerson), and Procol Harum (featuring Matthew Fisher who, incidentally, was just unawarded back royalties for the organ theme in "Whiter Shade of Pale").

Most memorable, or, perhaps most fanciful to a five-year-old girl: the rip-roaring organ solo in Del Shannon's Runaway, played by Max Crook on a heavily modified Clavioline which he called the Musitron.

I remember my dad gleefully playing that solo note for note on the organ, me and my little sister dancing crazily around the living room.

I used to go to a cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts a lot because I liked to sit in the window, drink coffee that was never quite hot enough, and listen to whatever music the barista played. We had similar taste; it was often Stereolab or Tortoise or, on feistier days, early Liz Phair. It was an indie time in my life.

Today, I walked to a coffee shop to buy a pound of beans. The barista offered me a complementary cup. He was playing Lee Hazlewood. I felt as though I were meant to be there, that place, that time. I sat in the window watching construction workers erect scaffolding, admiring the brick building across the street which was painted robin's egg blue but dominated by a sign with blocky yellow letters.

Lee's voice is magical, his storytelling transports, and I could listen to him every morning as I drink my coffee and feel warm.

I was going to say that this picture of Davy Graham is not an accurate depiction, but actually, I think it is. Listen through his brilliant guitar playing, his effortless, gently frolicsome vocals, his selections of Simon & Garfunkle covers, surprising jazz tunes and traditional British folk songs, and there is something goofy at his core. The goofiness doesn't get in the way - he's far, far too talented for that. Rather, it gives him dimension, levity.

This is my favorite song of the moment:

Love is teasing, and love is pleasing
And love's a treasure when first it's new
But as love grows older, it waxes colder
It fades away like the morning dew.