It Ain’t Easy

I am feeling nostalgic today.  Actually I am feeling very tired after a very late night for a middle aged body that has not been well taken care of.  The lyrics of Three Dog Night’s album cut “It Ain’t Easy” came to mind, and suddenly I was making a quick trip back to the 70’s.

 

Three Dog Night provided the sound track to my early married years, literally, but more than literally, as I bought their first five albums.  We lived in a trailer court right after we were married, as both of us were going to school.  Those records were played and played and played.  I have several hundred albums from the 60’s and 70’s, but none could be called collector’s editions.  They all are worn and scratched.    

 

Probably the best concert Jane and I went to was the first Three Dog Night concert in Omaha.  They were playing at the Civic Auditorium Music Hall, and they were late.  Very late.  A few band members came on and said something about “missing instruments,” but I think the missing instruments were a few more of the band members.  Anyway, they promised a great show, and they lived up to the promise. It was a fantastic concert, and well worth the $6.00 per ticket I paid.  Yes, $6.00, not $60.00, not $160.00.

 

They came back to Omaha a few months later, and the show was good, but not as good as their first performance.  By their third show in Omaha, they were famous, and more like a group of rock stars appearing, than like a good band playing.  We saw them play again in Omaha just a few years ago, playing in concert with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra.  It was a good show, and four band originals still play.

 

As we were leaving that show, Jane said to me “my God they are getting old,” meaning lead singers Danny Hutton and Corey Wells.  Aren’t we all getting old?  And, “It Ain’t Easy.” But if we weren’t as old as we are, we wouldn’t have some of the wonderful memories we do have.  It still ain’t easy though.

~ by Ron Meyer on July 4, 2008.