Welcome Back (The Universe Will Find You)

As the world moves to re-opening, we are hearing a lot of "Welcome Back."  Our businesses are welcoming us back, our long-term care services are welcoming us back, we are welcoming back sports in our lives, and we are welcoming back family and friends into our homes and hearts. 

One of the consequences is that many of us have the theme of "Welcome Back Kotter" as our earworm.  And, there is not much wrong with that.  It is a great song.  You can't help but smile and the words are easy so we can all sing along.  It is the perfect shower song.  However, I do not remember singing it out loud on public transit. 

But, as it often happens, the story behind the story is even more interesting. 

John Sebastian had some success as a singer/songwriter for his time with The Lovin' Spoonful and his unscheduled appearance at Woodstock, but his fame is "Welcome Back." 

Some ABC executives had an idea for a comedy television series that was about a teacher returning to teach at his high school.  While he was a student, he wasn't the greatest student, frequently in trouble, and caused a lot of grief for his teachers.  The idea was having him now a colleague of some of the teachers he tormented and having students torment him.  All the details and the characters hadn't been really flushed out yet and they didn't even know if they were going to proceed.  None the less, the ABC executives brought a number of singer/songwriters together to talk about their vision and to invite them to try to come up with a theme song. 

John Sebastian was part of that group and at the meeting he starting humming welcome back in his mind.  He said by the time he got home, he had almost written the song in his head.  He went to the basement studio to use his professional recording equipment consisted of two ghetto-blasters.  In the morning, he was there when ABC studios opened to present his theme song. 

After hearing the song, ABC decided to proceed with Welcome Back Kotter and basically used the song to help flush out the concept and define some of the characters  The song gave them the vision. 

However, they had really not expected anyone to write a theme song for several months.  They were amazed that John had just attended a meeting with a few concept ideas and then went home, stayed up all night, and had the recording done and even arrived to the studio before they did.  They asked what motivated him to do such. 

He had a simple but profound answer. 

He said, "I am a sweathog." 

There is a lesson in there for us all.  Put it out to the universe.  Put out who you are and what you want.  The universe will find out. 

And, for younger readers who have googled the song on UTube, your welcome. 

xoxo


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