Frank "Sugar Chile" Robinson

I ran across this while looking for something else. Frank Robinson is often mistakenly identified as a young Little Richard Penniman. He is not. But his story is unique.

Frank Robinson was born in 1938 in Detroit. He was a child prodigy by age two, later working with such luminaries as Lionel Hampton and Frankie Carle, who were master pianists themselves. He performed for President Truman at age seven and also appeared in the movie "No Leave, No Love" with Keenan Wynn the following year in 1946 when he was eight years old. This clip is from that film.

He is most remembered for his versions of "Numbers Boogie", which shot to #4, and the classic blues number "Caledonia", which reached #14. By 1952, at the age of 14, he stopped playing professionally to concentrate on his schoolwork. He is quoted in Wikipedia as having said in later years, "I wanted to go to school... I wanted some school background in me and I asked my Dad if I could stop, and I went to school because I honestly wanted my college diploma."

He went on to earn his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Michigan, before returning briefly to the music business, setting up new labels in Detroit during the 1960's.

Still very much alive, Mr. Robinson made an appearance promoting Detroit music in 2002, and later, in 2009, he traveled to England to appear in a rock and roll revival concert.

Doug MacLean - "Caledonia"

Today is one of those days when I don't have anything in particular to say. I'm in the middle of 2 good books, and things are generally going okay, but I'm not motivated to write anything. And underlying it all is a melancholy, for which I have no explanation, having stopped trying to figure these things out long ago, electing instead to just roll with the feeling and wait for it to pass. If someone were to ask me how I felt today I would simply play them Doug MacLean's "Caledonia."

This is not the blues song of the same name recorded by B.B. King and countless others. This song is a Scottish ballad written and performed by Doug MacLean. It's a song of reflection, in which a person is looking back, and inward, on their own life and seeking solace, or redemption, in what they see. And it is so accurate in relation to how I feel about myself, that I wanted to share it. Hit the link and then read through the words as you listen. Enjoy the music, bear with me while I bounce back, and I'll see you tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eW-ZDKNSqM&feature=related

"Caledonia" by Doug MacLean

I don't know if you can see
The changes that have come over me
In these last few days I've been afraid
That I might drift away

So I've been telling old stories, singing songs
That make me think about where I came from
And that's the reason why I seem
So far away today

Oh, but let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia you're calling me
And now I'm going home

If I should become a stranger
You know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything
I've ever had

Now I have moved and I've kept on moving
Proved the points that I needed proving
Lost the friends that I needed losing
Found others on the way

I have kissed the ladies and left them crying
Stolen dreams, yes there's no denying
I have traveled hard with coattails flying
Somewhere in the wind

(Chorus)

Now I'm sitting here before the fire
The empty room, the forest choir
The flames that could not get any higher
They've withered, now they've gone

But I'm steady thinking my way is clear
And I know what I will do tomorrow
When the hands are shaken and the kisses flow
Then I will disappear