Tag: My Way

‘My Way’ recorded by Frank Sinatra

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Life in general2 Comments

Whether we consider “My Way” as Sinatra’s swan song as he approached retirement, a statement of principles for living, or just a nice song, it’s difficult to hear anyone else sing it. The 1969 song originated with the French song “Comme d’habitude” composed by Jacques Revaux with lyrics by Gilles Thibaut and Claude François that would be translated into English by Paul Anka.

When the song was released, friends on colleagues thought I was full of myself to see the song as a roadmap for my life. “Sinatra’s famous, you’re not. Find a better song.” I suggested “Roll Me Over in the Clover” making people think I really was approaching life my way.

As the song says “Regrets, I’ve had a few, But then again, too few to mention,” and that’s certainly true of anyone who refuses to kow tow to the movers and shakers.  In general, I don’t trust the movers and shakers, much less allow them to dictate the rules for a writer’s life.

In terms of regrets in the song, sure, I should have treated a lot of people more fairly than I did, though, many of these folks got bent out of shape because I wouldn’t do things their way. Some of them meant well and some of them didn’t. I had a boss once, the president of the company, who said the firm was in trouble in a department heads meeting because I didn’t do XYZ. I produced  a memo from six months prior to that in which I sought permission to do XYZ, his resonse being “absolutely not.” I quit the next day because, as the president, nobody else on the staff was willing to concede that he was the liar.

This is typical of the kinds of scrapes I get into, partly because I don’t trust authority and partly because I think when I’m hired to do a job based my experience, I think the bosses should at least listen. It doesn’t have to be my way when all kinds of compromises and idea-tweeking are obvious. At another company that was really too small to survive, the person doing my exit interview tried to shush me when I said that I was leaving because of “the brain trust who got us into this mess.”

So there it is. “My Way” has probably made life more difficult that it could have been. I’m very stubborn and refuse to compromise on principle in spite of what the powers that be want within the machinations of their own agendas. Both the companies mentioned here went out of business because they wouldn’t face the reality of the arena where they operated.

What about you? Do you think it’s better to keep quiet just to get along with the power structures around you, or call them out?

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the conjure novel set in the Florida Panhandle in the Jim Crow era.

I really don’t want to clean up nice

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn beliefs, writing4 Comments

There’s a scene in the Dolly Parton/James Patterson novel Run Rose Run when an emerging singer with a raw and powerful voice is being styled into clothes, makeup, and a hairdo prior to a publicity shot. When she sees the result, she leaves the room for a few minutes only to return wearing  her comfortable clothes, minimal makeup, and her hair simply brushed out into its natural way of being. The stylists are shocked. She doesn’t care. Even though she looked like a diva, looking like a diva wasn’t for her. It didn’t feel right. That meant it was all wrong.

At this point in her introduction to Nashville and the country music business, AnnieLee Keyes is still learning “how things are done.” However, she’s defiant in a lot of ways and wants her voice and her songs to carry a career in which she can ignore how things are done.

I can identify with that because, as an author, I’ve always felt my words should be what people care about, not the clothes I’m wearing. I like blue jeans and tee-shirts with a denim or a flannel “jacket” depending on the weather. If it still ran, I’d drive up to any gathering in my old Jeep Universal or possibly an ancient 3.2-liter Jaguar Sedan. The cars would never be washed or waxed and I’d look like I hadn’t either.

In the old days, Sunday afternoons were the times when people dropped by each other’s houses unannounced, and that meant that my two brothers and I had to wear church clothes until supper. What a drag. Did anyone really think that was how we dressed day to day? In fact, I kept asking why I had to wear church clothes to go to church. That’s how things are done, I was told.

The only way to live, I always thought, was to ignore “how things were done” I always liked the song “My Way” because what other way was there? But, as many have learnt, that way is a rough way to go. The thing is, cleaning up nice feels like selling out–like how I look and how I act is just being a marionette controlled by the strings of tradition.

One has to be true to himself/herself, I think, and that means not dressing up like somebody you are not just because the wedding planner or the funeral director is claustrophobically traditional.

Good luck to you, AnnieLee Keyes.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the Florida Folk Magic Series which can be purchased at a savings in this four-in-one Kindle set. Folk magic means hoodoo. And hoodoo means having a weapon for fighting the KKK in 1950s Florida.