1 A.M. Long Ago

On hold with Google, October 16, 2013, 2:30 PM: Music went from middle of a phrase of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” to middle of the “1812 Overture” (the first phrase of “La Marseillaise”). Reminds me of a broadcast on the old KFAC, when night-time programming was provided by huge, slow reels playing unattended. Driving south on Cahuenga Blvd., 1 A.M., 1966, I heard the complete slow movement of the Ninth Symphony, and then, stealing in pianissimo, the “Habanera” from Carmen. I rounded the corner onto Santa Monica Blvd. and there–right there, in front of me–was a diesel engine pulling a caboose and moving slowly toward me, with a lantern being swung by a train-man leaning out of the engine in his striped cap and holding on tight to a vertical rod of shiny metal.