Touching Others Lives - Part 5 - Shuggie Otis

A name yet again that I had never heard of… Al Kooper Introduces Shuggie Otis.  A Multi-Instrumentalist and performing professionally since the age of 12.  Having to paint on a mustache to appear older, Shuggie Otis is behind the scenes in many places that we are familiar with.

Strawberry Letter 23, a song that Otis wrote has been heard in - Six Feet Under, Jackie Brown, Nip/Tuck, Pulp Fiction and Special K Commercials.  Touching Our Lives I would say..

Strawberry Letter 23 was written about a girlfriend of Shuggies, and recorded successfully by Brothers Johnson.   His girlfriend would write letters to him on Strawberry Scented Paper.

How many of us have given up actual written script? With Email,  Social Networks, Blogs and the entire internet movement, we really take for granted touching others lives through written word.  A few months back, I did a post on a blogger - Ty Hurd I had drawn a picture of Ty to promote his online campaign to win the Top Affiliate Challenge.  He thanked me in a post on his site, a nice email and about 4 days later, I got a hand written thank you card from Ty.  I opened the envelope on my way back from the mail, and had to stop in my steps.  So many of us forget what handwritten words can do.

What can written words do for us? They can encourage, elate, impress and give us warm & fuzzies.  Have you ever listened to a song over & over? Or re-read a love letter from the past, that is now worn at the creases? I know I have, trying to understand the emotion that it brings out in us.  Love letters, they are magical.  Whether it is a love letter to a spouse, a thank you from a friend, or just a line that says “you were thought of today”.

Couples often times loose touch, loose communication with each other, forgetting why they fell in love    This reminds me of a practice my husband and I had done daily for a long while, and since stopped. I shall re-institute it starting today.. our thoughts in written word, we kept a small diary on our kitchen table, so when we sat separately with our coffee we could jot down our feelings and emotions of the day.

I pulled the diary out - as I started writing this post

It was a bad winter, and my husband works for a local municipality and ends up out all hours of the night plowing, a thankless job truly.  He had been but a shadow for a week straight, and on the eve of his last night of call, I left him this - a very simple note:

“Sorry you had such a rough and long week on call..soon it will be over”

His response - “Thank you for loving me so much, I can’t wait til it’s over and I can see you”

Small & Simple affirmations of love.  Within the diary he even put a small note to my son - He said.. “Jake - remember to try something new today.  Have a nice day, smile alot and remember, I love you both.”

The song that you here playing in this post is, Bury My Body this is Al Kooper with Shuggie Otis on Guitar at the age of 15, a talent that has been amazingly overlooked, a talent that has Touched Our Lives without our knowledge.. Enjoy…