{"id":7827,"date":"2014-07-19T17:39:18","date_gmt":"2014-07-19T17:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/07\/19\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-jim-fixx-remembered\/"},"modified":"2014-07-19T17:39:18","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T17:39:18","slug":"saturday-night-at-the-oldies-jim-fixx-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/07\/19\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-jim-fixx-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night at the Oldies: Jim Fixx Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jim<\/a>It was 30 years ago tomorrow, during a training run.  Running pioneer James F. Fixx, author of the wildly successful The Complete Book of Running<\/em>, keeled over dead of cardiac arrest.  He died with his 'boots' on, and not from running but from a bad heart.  It's a good bet that his running added years to his life in addition to adding life to his years.  I've just pulled my hardbound copy of The Complete Book of Running<\/em> from the shelf.  It's a first edition, 1977, in good condition with dust jacket.  I read it when it first came out.  Do I hear $1000?  Just kidding, it's not for sale. This book and the books of that other pioneer, George Sheehan, certainly made a difference in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The atavism and simplicity and cleansing quality of a good hard run are particularly beneficial for Luftmenschen.<\/em>  Paradoxically, the animality of it releases lofty thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

See <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> for a comparison of Fixx and Sartre.  And <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> for something on George Sheehan.  Now for some 'running' tunes.
<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer Davis Group, Keep on Running<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jackson Browne, Running on Empty<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Eagles, The Long Run<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Beatles, Run for Your Life<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Del Shannon, Runaway<\/a>.  Charles Weedon Westover<\/strong> was born 30 December 1934 and is best known for his 1961 #1 hit, "Runaway."  Suffering from depression, Shannon committed suicide on February 8, 1990, with a .22-caliber rifle at his home in Santa Clarita, California. Following his death, the Traveling Wilburys<\/a> honored him by recording a version<\/a> of "Runaway".<\/span><\/p>\n

Bob Dylan, If Dogs Run Free<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Chuck Berry, Run Rudolph Run<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Johnny Preston, Running Bear<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Dion DiMucci, Runaround Sue<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Roy Orbison, Running Scared<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Crystals, They Do Run Run <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum (7\/20)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I should have mentioned it last night.  Today, 20 July, is not only the 30th anniversary of Jim Fixx's death, but also the 49th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone<\/a>.  Wikipedia:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The song had a huge impact on Bruce Springsteen<\/a>, who was 15 years old when he first heard it. Springsteen described the moment during his speech inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> in 1988 and also assessed the long-term significance of "Like a Rolling Stone":<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA<\/a>, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind … The way that Elvis freed your body, Dylan freed your mind, and showed us that because the music was physical did not mean it was anti-intellect. He had the vision and talent to make a pop song so that it contained the whole world. He invented a new way a pop singer could sound, broke through the limitations of what a recording could achieve, and he changed the face of rock'n'roll for ever and ever "[66]<\/a><\/sup>[67]<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dylan's contemporaries in 1965 were both startled and challenged by the single. Paul McCartney<\/a> remembered going around to John Lennon<\/a>'s house in Weybridge<\/a> to hear the song. According to McCartney, "It seemed to go on and on forever. It was just beautiful … He showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further."[68]<\/a><\/sup> Frank Zappa<\/a> had a more extreme reaction: "When I heard 'Like a Rolling Stone', I wanted to quit the music business, because I felt: 'If this wins and it does what it's supposed to do, I don't need to do anything else …' But it didn't do anything. It sold but nobody responded to it in the way that they should have."[68]<\/a><\/sup> Nearly forty years later, in 2003, Elvis Costello<\/a> commented on the innovative quality of the single. "What a shocking thing to live in a world where there was Manfred Mann<\/a> and the Supremes<\/a> and Engelbert Humperdinck<\/a> and here comes 'Like a Rolling Stone'".[69]<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Your humble correspondent was lying in the sand at Huntington Beach, California, when the song came on the radio.  It was like nothing else on the radio in those days of the Beatles and the Beach Boys.  It 'blew my mind.' What is THAT? And WHO is that?  I had been very vaguely aware of some B. Dylan as the writer of PPM's Don't Think Twice<\/a>.  I pronounced the name like 'Dial in.' That memorable summer of '65 I became a Dylan fanatic, researching him at the library and buying all his records.  The fanaticism faded with the '60s.  But while no longer a fanatic, I remain a fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Saturday Night at the Oldies: Varia<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 30 years ago tomorrow, during a training run.  Running pioneer James F. Fixx, author of the wildly successful The Complete Book of Running, keeled over dead of cardiac arrest.  He died with his 'boots' on, and not from running but from a bad heart.  It's a good bet that his running added years … Continue reading “Saturday Night at the Oldies: Jim Fixx Remembered”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,18,493,146,198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dylan","category-music","category-running","category-sixties","category-tributes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}