Different....

In a different era, the 1960's, we grew to love our music on a small radio. It had no fidelity. There were no bass and treble controls, just a volume control wheel. There was no station scanning, just a rotating wheel.  If we were lucky, our station selection came in clear enough to understand the lyrics and hear some rhythm from one tiny primitive speaker.  We fell in love with every top 40 song that came over the airwaves on our favorite Philly station.  We rocked to the British invasion and grooved to Motown...and in the midst of hundreds of groups to emerge, we loved our Mamas and Papas.  

When I listened to the music of The Mamas and The Papas, a different voice, even on that tinny tiny transistor tune transmitter, dominated the harmonies. It was the voice of Cass Elliot.  As a young boy, I got goosebumps listening to the group's hits, and when they disbanded in 1968, I enjoyed several solo hits by Cass. The hits of The Mamas and The Papas and Cass Elliot are not rare...they are available on CD and to download, and Cass's hit, Make Your Own Kind of Music, was featured on an episode of the TV series Lost. What is rare are those obscure albums Cass recorded between 1969 and 1973 with tunes undiscovered by me.

Last year, I had some birthday gift money to spend, so I explored Amazon and stumbled across two collections of Cass's original solo albums, more than 70 tunes of hits and rarities which were digitally remastered and reasonably priced. Listening to these hits surrounded by rare standard and pop recordings resonated the sentiment that her life and career were too brief for this listener.  It was good to hear some of those familiar favorites again, and to find some undiscovered gems.

Embedded in the earliest of the solo collections was a tune called Different written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, writers of many 1970's television theme songs including the Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley themes, as well as pop hits Killing Me Softly With His Song and I Got a Name.  After the first listen, Different was the tune I liked the least, and initially labeled outdated, poorly recorded, and simple. It was a song from an old children's television series called H.R. Pufnstuf.  I was a young teenager when that show was aired, and dismissed it as silly, stupid and unwatchable.  By the third listening of the collection and the song Different, and after a closer look at the lyrics, the quality of the recording didn't matter, it was timeless and simple and spoke volumes.

♪♪♫When I was smaller, and people were taller,

I realized that I was different,

I had a power that set me apart.

I learned to take it, to use it, to make it,

it's not so bad to be different -

to do your own thing

and do it with heart.

Different is hard,

different is lonely,

different is trouble, for you only.

Different is heartache,

different is pain,

but I'd rather be different than be the same!

At first I'd wonder, what hex I was under.  What did I do to be so different?

Then I discovered some others like me.

Wonder no longer, together we're stronger.  It's not so bad to be different,

be true to yourself - that's what you must be!♫♪♪

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GTdDJglBeI

Musically, Different is still my least favorite track on either of Cass's collections, but lyrically, it's a sentiment for anyone to learn from. The child, adolescent, teenage and adult versions of me could have reaped the benefits of being more accepting of myself and others being different.


Different is profound and relevant in the life of a human being,
Different is the academic achiever who can't throw a baseball, the athletic achiever who struggles with academia
Different is the teenager who doesn't experiment with drugs and alcohol or use profanity
Different is the one who votes differently, lives differently;
Different is the boy who is sensitive, the girl who is bold,
Different is the Mom who works outside the home, the Dad who stays home,
Different is the one of a different size and shape and religion and culture,
Different is the child who learns, behaves, achieves, and sees the world in different ways.
Different is our child, our friend, our colleague...and our self
Different is the one who is bullied and unaccepted,
Different is the human who can accept the different...
Different is each of us.

Different without
Insecurity but with
Fortitude and
Fearlessness... 
Empathy and
Respect from
Everyone,
No exceptions...
Tolerance!

I've had to live and learn to accept the process of acceptance.  It's a lesson I didn't learn overnight, and I have a long way to go.  I am grateful for for each loved one in my life for being different; for working with children whose needs are astoundingly different; for Cass's recording; for reissues of appropriate listening for this "stuck in a different era" sort of guy; for each friend, neighbor, or colleague for being different; and most of all, I am grateful for not being alone in being different! 

DIFFERENT, both in others and in myself, is okay!