Mat hits

 


Mat hits


     This is very simple. On a given night I would be invited to come up the short drive on the 2 freeway to 2911 Francis in La Crescenta. The invitation became shortened to "the mat is out" and I would respond most of the time in the affirmative. We mostly listened to music on my Ipod that Greg was able to connect to his Bose multi-speaker system. There was some imbibing and some conversing but the music was always in the air and that is how I began creating mixes that would be pleasing to my old pal. "Mat Hits" were guaranteed winners that the man in the leather chair would swoon over when they were played. It came to be point where I could predict what he would say after particular songs and I would goad him a bit with selections that I knew would never miss the mark. Once upon a time when I made cassette tapes I could include phone messages, movie dialogue, TV themes and recorded comments from other friends. Mat Hits included "for Free" by Joni, Leaves that are green by Simon and Garfunkel, Bali Hai by Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Newman,  John Sheehy telling me "piss on you" Alfred Drake, Gregorian Chants, Nick Drake, Dave Mason, Dionne Warwick and many other artists the guy adored. He liked to stick with what he knew and you just could not play a favorite song too many times (see Carol of the Bells or anything by Dick and Oscar). 



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