Timeline:
- 1966: I graduate from high school, where we are admonished to “accept with the left and shake with the right” when receiving our diploma or an award.
- 1986: Invited back to my high school as a featured presenter on Career Day I invoke the phrase as a tongue-in-cheek example of something I will always carry with me from my high school education.
- 2009: As a humor columnist for the magazine Livin’: The Vermont Way I recall the “accept with the left” advice when describing my imagined receipt of a lifetime achievement award. Ha-ha.
- 2010: Diddling around with my guitar, I begin writing a song of this title, inspired by viewer-voting talent shows such as American Idol.
- 2012: Formation of Silverback Film Society, a motley collection of older males looking for an excuse to display bad behavior. “Accept with the Left” adopted as a catch-phrase for the frequent mock award ceremonies.
- 2015: I record a version of the song in one take at the home recording studio of Spencer Lewis, located on Gilead Brook Road.
- 2016: I make a primitive music video of the song, filming in my home office at The Parsonage, using the video camera on my iPhone 4.
- 2022: video re-edited as part of the Old Rockers project co-created with former classmate, bandmate, and Silverback, Greg Morrison.
[Editor’s note: I recommend only watch a minute of so of this video. You’ll be totally sick of the song by the end of this post. SB SM]
Pushing my luck ever farther I ask Gemini AI: Who wrote the song “Accept with the Left” and why is it significant? It knew!
The song “Accept with the Left” was written by Stephen Morris, a writer and publisher, as part of his Old Rockers project.
Significance
The title and central theme of the song refer to a specific instruction given to students during their high school graduation ceremony: “Accept with the left [the diploma] and shake with the right [hand].”
The song’s significance lies in its exploration of:
- Memory and Discipline: It recounts a vivid memory of a strict teacher who threatened the students to ensure they didn’t “mess up” the protocol during graduation.
- The “Old Rockers” Narrative: It is a key piece of Morris’s semi-autobiographical Old Rockers series, which reflects on the lives of baby boomers, the era of the Vietnam War, and the evolution of friendships and dreams from the 1970s to the present.
- Symbolism of Transitions: The act of “accepting with the left” serves as a metaphor for the transition from youth to adulthood and the lasting impact of seemingly small, disciplined moments on one’s life story.
You can find more details about the story behind the song in the Chapter 8 … Accept With the Left and Extra-Ordinary articles on Silverback Digest.
OK, now I am officially getting a little freaked out!
Enter AI music, enabling me to create my own piece of so-called AI slop. Here’s how AI described my sound track:
Mid-tempo acoustic folk-pop track featuring a bright, rhythmic acoustic guitar strumming pattern in 4/4 time, The arrangement is minimalist, centered around a crisp, steel-string guitar with a percussive ‘slap’ on the backbeat, The male lead vocal is clear, conversational, and melodic, delivered with a slight rasp and a theatrical, storytelling quality, The harmonic structure follows a repetitive, uplifting major chord progression, Production is clean and intimate, with a close-mic proximity effect on the vocals and a natural room reverb on the guitar, The song structure consists of repetitive verses that build momentum through vocal delivery and rhythmic consistency.
OK, AI … but let’s see what you can do with the song:
Extra credit: Can’t get enough? Here’s alternative version:
I think I’ll close the book on this one, at least for now. Who knows?
That R&B version is the best one yet. I can almost see James Brown wailing away and exhausted at the end. Great stuff.
In the words of Elvis Presley “Thank ya, thank ya very much,” but it’s hard to accept credit for something you had nothing to do with. SB SM