Last night at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks staged one of the most amazing comebacks in sports history to defeat the San Antonio Spurs. The place turned into a delirious “Garden Party,” which brought to mind an old pop song with that name.
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I once started a screenplay with the words: “I have two kinds of regret. Regret for things that I did. And regret for things I didn’t do.”
Regrettably, I didn’t finish that project.
When I started publishing daily essays on Facebook at the beginning of the pandemic, the most common feedback I received was that my memories resonated with people. But those memories were only one part of what I was trying to achieve.
My past, like everyone else’s, was littered with successes and failures, wins and losses, darkness and light. In retrospect, good and bad seemed roughly in balance over my eight decades. You could say the two kinds of regret were also therefore in balance, I suppose.
Which brings me to the story behind Ricky Nelson’s plaintive yet defiant ballad “Garden Party.” The song recounts the night that the ‘60s pop star played before a packed house at Madison Square Garden while trying to make a comeback in 1972.
While he was on stage, Nelson thought the concert was turning into a disaster because the crowd seemed to be booing him off the stage whenever he tried to sing one of his new songs.
It later turned out that most of the booing was in fact directed at the security guards, who were roughing up some rowdy members of the crowd outside of the singer’s line of sight. But by the time Nelson learned about that, he’d already written and released “Garden Party.” (Lyrics below.)
His assumptions about the boos may have been flawed; nevertheless he had a hit on his hands.
The key line in his song is “If memories were all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.”
That song turned out to be a very big hit, Nelson’s last in fact. Perhaps he regretted being wrong about the booing; or perhaps not. He died at age 45 in a plane crash on the way to a New Year’s Eve concert.
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LYRICS (“Garden Party” by Rick Nelson
I went to a garden party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
And play our songs again
When I got to the garden party
They all knew my name
But no one recognized me
I didn’t look the same
But it’s all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
People came from miles around
Everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus
There was magic in the air
And over in the corner
Much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan’s shoes
Wearing his disguise
But it’s all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
I played them all the old songs
I thought that’s why they came
No one heard the music
We didn’t look the same
I said hello to “Mary Lou”
She belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk
It was time to leave
But it’s all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
Someone opened up a closet door
And out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a ringing a bell
And lookin’ like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties
I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang
I’d rather drive a truck
But it’s all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
And it’s all right now, yeah
Learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
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