BMatt’s Monday musings
AUBURN | The turnout was impressive and the feedback even more so from Auburn’s Lettermen Day March 17.
More than 200 former players attended including former running back Kerryon Johnson, who spoke with Auburn Director of Strategic Communications Jeff Shearer afterwards.
“Coach Freeze re-energized the program,” Johnson said. “That's the starting point. He brings that pride back, he brings that energy. That's half the battle right there.”
A week later it was another big turnout and more positive vibes from the high school coaches that attended Auburn's coaching clinic.
In fact, the positivity is literally flowing out of the brand new Woltosz Football Performance Center as Hugh Freeze begins his 18th week in charge of the Tigers’ football program.
You can see it on the faces of Freeze’s assistants, his hard-working staff and a group of players that includes 21 newcomers — Auburn is on the way back.
Senior safety Zion Puckett, who is on his third head coach at AU, compared making it through the previous two years to coming out of a storm.
“Everybody is starting to figure out what they really loved about football and just going out each and every day and getting better,” said Puckett.
Getting back to loving the game of football tells me everything I need to know about what it was like for these players the previous two seasons.
The last guy talked a lot about culture, but talk is cheap and so were his words.
Freeze and his staff are actually creating a culture of hard work, brotherhood and family.
He doesn’t have to say it. You feel it as soon as you step into the building.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 47 years to the day a song inspired by a Hindu monk and a former Beatle, which in turn helped give birth to a legendary horror franchise, peaked on the U.S. charts. On March 27, 1976, Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver” rose to No. 2 on the Billboard 100. The journey started when George Harrison gave Wright a book, Autobiography of a Yogi, which included Paramahansa Yogananda’s poem, “God! God! God!” before the pair left on a trip to India. The poem includes the line, “When my mind weaves dreams.” Wright was also inspired by John Lennon’s 1970 song, “God,” which includes the lyric, “I’m the Dreamweaver. But now I’m reborn.” “Dreamweaver,” particularly it’s keyboard opening, inspired Wes Craven to write and direct 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Wright said he originally wrote Dream Weaver into a journal of song titles and several months later sat down with his guitar and finished the song within an hour. When he recorded the song, he left out his guitar and used a keyboard with drums in the background. It went on to sell over 2 million copies and be certified gold by the RIAA. It’s appeared in several movies including Wayne’s World and The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Gary Malcolm Wright was born in 1943 in Cresskill, N.J. He was a child actor appearing in commercials and T.V. shows along with a two-year stint in the Broadway musical, Fanny. He played in several different bands in high school but decided on a career as a doctor and attended medical school in the U.S. for a year before moving to West Germany in 1966 to complete his training. He started playing in bands again in Germany and eventually landed with Spooky Tooth in 1968 where he recorded three albums before departing on a solo career and signing with A&M Records in 1970. That year he played piano on Harrison’s triple album, All Things Must Pass, and continued to collaborate with Harrison on his solo projects for many years. He also played on a couple of Ringo Starr singles including 1971’s “It Don’t Come Easy.” Spooky Tooth reunited from 1972-74 before Wright embarked on a second solo career and signed with Warner Bros. His third solo album, 1975’s The Dream Weaver, included his biggest hit, “Dream Weaver,” and his only other hit, “Love Is Alive,” which also peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 100. Wright has produced a dozen albums and collaborated on many more. He published an autobiography in 2014.