"Stars"

Shel is reminiscing about her time as a famous singer. She’s in a large living room that is very modern for the times and shows that there’s modest fanciness.

Shel: It’s too bad I can’t go back to the good old days. The days where everyday was magic and there were people who loved us and wanted my autograph when I stepped off stage. Now I’m feeling cranky all the time. My bones are cracking and aching and I want to shout at the neighborhood kids. I’ve never been like this, I used to join the neighborhood kids and teach them how to sing and create chorals. I tried to play sports with them. Basketball proved that I can’t make any shots.

I must say, “growing old is getting old. I often find myself thinking about” my backyard with “the birds” and the lake behind my home with “the boats” that everyone is envious of. Those remind me of my “past loves that flew away or started sinking.” Boy were there a lot of those.

What I really want to spend time on is thinking about how “it’s crazy here without you.” You, Mel, were special. One of a kind moments of love that I don’t know if I could ever get back. When we were younger, “I used to think this all was ours” and that all that I achieved would have been shared with you. I think I scared you away or didn’t really pay enough attention to what we had.

My favorite part was when “we’d stay up late, debate on how we’d find our way” around the world on tour and somehow into space because everything we wanted was “all up in the stars.” We didn’t end up together. I won'’t be mad at what I accomplished. No one sang and produced for a long as I did.

“Some nights” on that stage “I [ruled] the world.” I wasn’t the only one to say so. It was fun playing in bars until the break of dawn. Smelling the mix of cigarette smoke and spilled beers. There’s no more intense smell that brings back so many amazing memories. And the “bar lights and pretty girls” and boys who were always dancing. It’s mesmerizing to see people ignore you, but disappear into your songs and music.

The world really turned out differently than I would have ever expected. Different than I dreamed when I was young. You’d think that my parents would have been upset I started singing and never got married. They supported that decision and if they worried, no one bothered to tell me. It was so easy to “stay straight and think about my mom” while I was touring. When we were able to chat, it’d be for hours. The bills we racked up calling each other collect. “Oh God, I miss her so much.”

Ever since she passed, I decided to do what she did. Teach middle school kids about music.

Shel gets up and heads outside. She watches some children playing basketball on the street.

One thing that makes me really happy is that no matter where I go, “there are people people on the street” who recognize me. Usually for my singing and the albums. Every now and again “they’re coming up to me” and “telling me that they like what I do now.”

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