Nevada Bob's Bad Movie Blues

Nevada Bob Gordon in Minneapolis. Photos by Gary Firstenberg

Nevada Bob has been making progress on his memoirs. His book 50 Years with the Wrong Woman is slated for release in the second quarter of 2022. I will keep you posted.

Bob has also been recording in Nashville these past couple years. If you may recall, Bob Dylan recorded several albums there, and now Nevada Bob has done the same. For both Bob and Nevada Bob, the session musicians were superb. And for each, one of the players was the much heralded Charlie McCoy.

After completing Long Train To Nowhere, which features Carol's Song, Nevada Bob's tribute to his wife, Bob Gordon returned to Nashville to record an album with numerous other songs he's penned. "Bad Movie Blues" is the first track on his most recent CD, Everyone Needs a Little Lovin'...And a Lot of Beer. 

Bad Movie Blues
Copyright 2021, Nevada Bob Gordon

Life today is like a bad movie,
you go to bed, the movie is gone, 
and when you awake to start the next day
you find that bad movie's still on.

I'm an old man, happy most of my days,
life was good then, no doubt.
I look around now and wonder
what's this new world all about.

World leaders today seem more greedy
using power to gain your respect
but before long, you wish they were gone,
they're not the person you helped elect. 

Life today is like a bad movie,
you go to bed, the movie is gone, 
and when you awake to start the next day
you find that bad movie's still on.

People today seek power and wealth,
what's more important I couldn't tell which
but I know for certain when they drop my last curtain
I'd rather die happy than rich.

Marriage today doesn't have the respect
where families remain intact;
married twice or never at all
has become an unfortunate fact.

When I look around and see, I think you'll agree,
I think people should take this advice:
take your old time to find a good mate,
you don't need to try marriage twice.

Make a good movie,
hold through bad weather,
face problems together,
make a good movie your life. 

* * * 

His smile may not be as effervescent as Amy Owens, and he has 
nothing to do with trying to hit high notes, but Nevada Bob Gordon
has lived a colorful life and he's got lots of stories to tell.

Nevada Bob at the Armory in Duluth where
young Bobby Zimmerman saw Buddy Holly.

Ay Gettysburg. "One Civil War is enough, thank you.

Another Nevada Sunset...

Meantime, life goes on. 

Singer/Songwriter Nevada Bob Is A Storyteller, Too

Nevada Bob. Photo: Gary Firstenberg

I've written a few blog posts about Nevada Bob Gordon this past year, chiefly pertaining to some CDs he's recorded in Nashville. He has a Johnny Cash baritone that is easy to listen to. 

In addition to singing, he has also written a memoir titled 50 Years with the Wrong Woman, which he hopes to see published before too long. 

The title, of course, is more for entertainment purposes. His wife, Carol, has been his inspiration from the day he set eyes on her.  In addition to covering other artists, Bob has recorded a half dozen or more songs for Carol.

Nevada Bob is a character through and through, and his memoir shows how much of a character he's been for the past 8-plus decades. This anecdote from his memoir will give you a clue as to where some of this came from. It apparently runs in the family.

Here's an excerpt from his manuscript, which I've been given the pleasure of reviewing. (Used with permission.) 

A Reno Trip with Emily

It was also around this time that Carol and I purchased our new home. Soon after we moved in, I was approached by my grandmother Emily Sharp. Emily was a young-appearing, attractive woman in her early 60’s. She wanted to fly to Reno, Nevada so she could gamble because she loved bingo games. Her husband, Bill Sharp, was working on a job that took him out of the country for extended periods of time, so she asked me to accompany her to Reno. 

Carol was not interested in the slightest in coming with us. This let us take advantage of a particularly lucrative package offered by Reno Casinos; soon, Emily had arranged for her and me to fly as man and wife. During the flight, the stewardesses’ treated me with a fair amount of disdain. I don’t know how they made the connection or assumption that this young man married a wealthy woman, but they definitely had, and throughout the flight they made me very uncomfortable with their glares. 

When we finally reached our destination at our hotel, a young lady got out of the vehicle with us. Trying to be polite, I carried the young lady’s luggage as well as mine and Emily’s into the hotel. I think the girl assumed I was flirting with her. 

After checking in the clerk said aloud, “Mr. and Mrs. Gordon you have room 114.” 

The girl looked at us in disbelief. My crazy grandmother, looking over her shoulder as we walked away, said, “It’s okay honey, he only married me for my money.”

Related Links

Nevada Bob Gordon's Long Train to Nowhere

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2021/05/come-along-and-ride-nevada-bob-gordons.html

Photo: Bary Firstenberg

Come Along and Ride Nevada Bob Gordon's Long Train To Nowhere

Last year when Gary Firstenberg passed this way to see the two homes Bob Dylan grew up in, he introduced me to a unique individual who had recently recorded a CD in Nashville called Long Train To Nowhere. He sings with a deep resonant baritone with a warmth that draws you in. It's an album of mostly covers that has been made special by a song Nevada Bob wrote in memory of his wife Carol.

What caught my interest initially was that Charlie McCoy, the studio musician who seduced Dylan away from New York to record in Nashville, is one of the backing musicians on Nevada Bob Gordon's 24 track CD.

When Mr. Firstenberg first made mention of him, he also mentioned a book manuscript he'd written about his unusual life, tentatively titled 50 Years with the Wrong Woman. It's apparent from "Carol's Song" and the stories of their life together that he's got his tongue firmly planted in his cheek with that title.

In a couple weeks Nevada Bob is flying to Nashville from his ranch outside Reno to record a second album, this time with five new songs. If we're lucky, we'll get a music video out of this so people can hear him sing and not just try to guess what he sounds like. 

An alternative title for the book might be Bob Gordon's Unorthodox Road to Success. He began his career as a police officer in a crooked police department. When he finally escaped and distanced himself from that experience the his persistence in the face of adversities produced a lifetime of anecdotal tales that are clearly beyond the pale of most of our experiences. His cousin, for what it's worth, was NASA astronaut Richard Gordon who remained on the command module during Apollo 12, making 45 passes around the moon while Pete Conrad and Alan Bean did their work on the lunar surface.

At age 30 Nevada Bob had to deal with a severe bout of cancer that ought to have ended his story. He had other plans.

* * *

The photos on this page are from the photo shoot for this CD plus a few extras, courtesy Gary Firstenberg.