She lived in Success...

Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere

It was a Friday night and Eric was the opening act at SouthSide on Dauphin Street. He was opening for a touring band that was traveling through Mobile. One of the reasons he was selected for this particular act was that he played a lot of James Taylor songs and the touring band was The SallyTaylor Band, (Sally is the daughter of James Taylor and Carly Simon). 

I remember the first time I saw her as she came in wearing sweat pants and shirt and her hair was twisted up and half down. Even through that I could see that she was beautiful. I was sure that she had been on the road all day with her band and probably for many days prior. She came in with a great smile and introduced herself to Eric. They talked a while and seemed to really hit it off right away.

She asked him about a place to eat nearby and he recommended a restaurant for them, then he got his things set up for the show. One of the items he used frequently in those days was a bubble machine. It always added a little magic to the show and most people really loved those bubbles.

Sally and her band returned to the venue to prepare for their performance. Eric began his opening act and they watched as he sang. Right away I could tell that they really liked him. In those days Eric was called Birdman. It was a nickname he had picked up while in high school on the baseball team. He made a diving catch and his coach (Coach Rollins) said “if you keep jumping like that we will stop calling you Erdman and start calling you BIRDman”.  It stuck and he was called Birdman after that.

Well he had the name “BIRDMAN” stenciled on the side of his road cases that held his sound equipment and lights. Sally and her guitarist, Chris were struck by that because, Chris was also nicknamed “Birdman”. Chris’ parents were “bird people”, they raised all sorts of birds and I understand they were ornithologists. So he grew up with birds all around him and his friends had dubbed him, “The Birdman”.

As Eric performed he activated his bubble machine a couple of times with a pedal that he pushed with his foot. The bubbles drifted into the audience and each took a different path. Some soared upward hastily, while others drifted slowly to the floor where they rested until they popped. Some lit in people’s hair and lasted a few seconds there before they too popped. It was fascinating to watch those bubbles, each living their own fleeting moments in completely different ways. They were similar to people, each choosing or drifting, using the time they have on earth in their own way.

Sally watched those bubbles and she loved them. She asked him could he leave the bubble machine for her to use. He said, “Sure”! Then he instructed her on how to start the bubbles and how to stop them.

When Sally took the stage she was adorable, She was dressed nice and her hair was perfect. Her stage presence was remarkable. She had been on the road supporting her newest album called, “Tomboy Bride”. Sally also told the story of living in New York as she grew up in an apartment on the west side. Their apartment number was 6S and her mother would buy groceries at the market and have them delivered to their apartment. She would say, “We live at this apartment building, in 6S”. As a child Sally did not understand that it was an apartment number, she thought her mother was saying we live in “Success”. She remembered thinking, “well we live in success, that is good!” It wasn’t until many years later that she realized what her mother had been saying.

As she sang her songs, she tapped the pedal for the bubble machine to commence sending those bubbles out to the world. There was a very redneck acting guy in the bar that night that was dressed totally in black. He wore boots and a cowboy hat and his hair sort of stuck out from underneath the hat with no real direction, it was something that made you take a second look. Well this guy was enamored with Sally, he seemed fixated on her beauty and her talent. So he stood up front and leaned against a post as he enjoyed the show. She tapped the bubble machine and did not understand the instructions Eric had given because she left it running. Bubbles, Bubble, Bubbles were released into the air and they were flying, dropping, landing, popping, sticking to people and walls. Suddenly we looked up at the cowboy guy in black and he was just covered in bubbles. I don’t know if the black just attracted bubbles, or if the fabric of the clothes he wore was good for bubbles to land on and stay intact. I do know that was quite a sight to see this guy covered in all of those bubbles.

Sally kept a rode diary of her shows on her tour and she wrote a great story of her show in Mobile and the bubble machine. I always read her diary and enjoyed every story that she wrote. 

Eric and Sally became friends back then and they have remained friends over all of these years. As a matter of fact a couple of years ago she included Eric in a project she had begun, it is called the Consenses Project. It is a fascinating journey of the perceptions and creativity of artists in all disciplines as they express themselves. She sent Eric a picture. It was a plain picture of a boat. It was not a fancy boat or a new boat, just an old boat sitting in the water. She asked Eric to look at the picture and write a song based on the picture. Not about the subject matter but about how this picture made him feel.

He wrote a song about how this picture made him feel and sent it to her. The song made its journey down a path of several artists, there was a dance choreographer, a sculptor, a glass-blower, a jewelist, a perfumist, a chef and others, but the final artist discipline was a film maker. Eric was not the only songwriter involved, I am not certain, but I believe she sent pictures to a dozen or maybe even twenty and each group of artists did their thing in the journey of this wonderful process she created. There are artists included from 23 different countries, I think 133 total artists (don’t hold me to that, I am not certain of the exact number).

Well over two years have passed and the big event of revealing the progression of these songs (Eric’s included) to the final step of film maker, will take place in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts August 17-August 20 this year. It is very exciting and I plan to fly there with him to see him being honored in such a way.

The song he wrote for Sally’s project is named, “What’s Left of What Used to Be” and it is the last song on his second album, Color the Silence.