Bob Nolan's Descendents Today
(Calin, Miles and Connor Coburn)
"In the Wind of Time" (Bob Nolan) spoken by Calin Coburn, 2000
Calin Coburn with his sons, Miles and Connor, on their 2010 trip north to Canada.
(Photo by Mitchell Cohan)
Bob Nolan's grandson, Calin Coburn, and Calin's sons enjoy driving to Canada and spending time with the McDonalds in the BC Interior. These pictures were taken during that time. Calin and his sons grew up in Las Vegas so the lakes and forests of British Columbia were a relief from the desert heat.
Left: Calin, Miles and Connor
Centre: Ralph & Elizabeth McDonald, Connor, Calin & Miles Coburn
Miles & Connor
Miles is beginning to resemble his famous great grandfather.
Bob
Nolan had one daughter,
Roberta, and she had one son, Calin. Because he grew up
in Las Vegas and Bob confined his own movements to the San Fernando Valley or
his cabin on Big Bear Lake, Calin did not see much of his grandfather then.
There were brief visits over the years and, when he did visit with him, they had
only a grandfather - grandson relationship. Calin was unaware as a child that
Bob was once world famous.
Calin recalls, “Bob named me and spelled my name
‘Calin’ on purpose because it made a point; it was different. In later years, he
wanted to take me deep sea fishing. He and my Mom and my uncle would rent a boat out of San Diego and
they would go all the way down the coast of Baja to the end. Every night they
would stop in at wherever they were, go in and drink and eat and they’d get back
out on the boat the next morning for more fishing.”
During his
college years in Santa Barbara, Calin was able to visit Bob more often
but it wasn’t until he stayed with him for a few days in 1975 that he was
granted a look into his grandfather’s heart and mind.
Those
conversations were precious and, even thirty years later, Calin found he was
unable to share them with others. “When Bob talked to me it was to me, for me.
Nobody else. I can’t say I got to know him - nobody knew him – but if he’d lived
longer….”
Calin's thoughts on Bob Nolan:
I admire the man for different
reasons from most people. Yes, he had a great talent. No one can doubt that. But
I saw and appreciated him as one who shied away from the bright spotlight and
lived in the past shimmering lights of evening. He saw himself as only a
man but he was a man who lived within his memories. Today meant nothing other
than a stepping stone to the next. The past and his life of regrets were
all-consuming and they touched his music, especially his lyrics.
I don’t think that he had an insight into life or love any more than the rest of
us. Most people are shallow or shy away from the deep heart - that heart that
hurts and will continue to do so, if one allows. Did he ever
found solace or peace? Those who do not pose such questions of themselves tend
to be shallow. Why live in the miseries and pain of the
past? For this is the reason that he cut himself off from the world in general
and lived a quiet and solitary existence till his dying day.
It’s hard to comprehend a man who creates such beauty in music, lyrics and feels
no need or desire to hold on to it. It would seem that he feels no value in his
work. Bob was just a man. A simple, warm and caring man, but just a man. But he
was a man to aspire to. His personal introspective thoughts seemed always to be searching. We will
never know the paths he took in his own mind. I wonder if he ever found any
solace or peace in his soul. We both know that he was very unhappy for most of
his life.
I must also wonder where his music and lyrics came from at such an early stage
in his life. Who was that love he longed for all those years? Or was it, as I've
always thought, a search for a true love that he never ever found?
I have a theory, though. He may have started to write about the love of a
particular woman – maybe Pearl, maybe someone else before her or someone after
her - his first love. But, as the years went by, he wrote about the love that he
once felt; the desire to have that first love still in his life. That sort of
love never comes twice in anyone’s heart, a love that is so clear and clean of
all life’s trials and tribulations. In those younger years there are no
responsibilities. Money isn’t factored into life yet. You are immersed in
nothing but youth and love. That feeling and yearning after long years becomes
an entity of its own. So, maybe there was no one woman he was writing about,
rather a feeling that he had once experienced in his youth. And in his songs
that feeling lives on.
I disagree with anyone who says Bob was cold and callous but if you want to be
truly objective, you are going to have to face the fact that some people center
their entire lives around themselves. Bob was, of course, not a mean person but
I don’t think he let anyone else into his life simply because it was easier that
way.
When you let people in, it requires a great deal of energy and all of his mental
energy was consumed by himself. There was no room for anyone else.
Solitude is not something you strive for or decide upon, it is the consequence
of years of choices. It is something that should not be desired or achieved in
any one man’s life. If it touches you, there is no going back, no recourse. It
will leave you with absolutely nothing. Your life will become…nothing. Rote will
be your existence. The rest of your days will consist of nothing more than
plodding.
Bob was not as complicated a man as you might think. His life was devoted to one
person – himself. Bob was Bob. An island unto himself. Bob was internal. Bob was
just writing music, enjoying his life, making songs, making words. And the way
they go together is the gift of Bob to us.
The majority of people in the world only listen to music. There are
those who allow the music to surround their senses and derive great pleasure
from it, yes. And then there are a lucky few who don’t just listen but let the music
enter their souls. They actually feel the music within their heart and body.
People such as these have a real and true passion for life, whether they show it
on the outside or not.
The physical quality of the recording or even the skill with which it is
presented has nothing to do with the enjoyment and appreciation of the actual
song. Your emotional response to the song will transcend any technical
peculiarities. I have listened to all types of music since I was just a child.
The songs that have become my favorites have done so because I feel them in the
very fibres of my being.
There is a saying that you measure a person by the friends he keeps. I say that
a person should be measured by the music he loves. Music transcends the
boundaries of love, hate, despair and bliss. To see truly and completely inside
a person, you would have to listen to their music; not just the music that they
are listening to today but throughout the full span of their lives.
Very few people in all of life actually make a mark on history the way Bob did. I don’t think
he
understood what he contributed and how he touched so many people in the world.
If you were to ask him if he saw himself as a great man he would simply say
“No.” He saw himself as a man who had loved and lost and made mistakes along the
way, as we all have. I doubt he even saw the gift he truly possessed, that
uncanny ability to express the feelings of so many people and put them to word
and music.
Family Photos
Left: Bob Nolan and his grandson, Calin Coburn
Right: Ken Coburn, Bob Nolan with Calin and his mother, Roberta
Photos of Bob Nolan taken by Calin Coburn
Bob's verses spoken by Calin Coburn: