Music is the most evocative sensory experience in the world. When a song is closely tied to a worldly experience, it can transport you back in time like nothing else.
Fortunately, I’ve been immersed in music since the time I was born. Lullabies, church (and church choir), Christmas caroling, campfire sing-alongs, and school band brought me inside the music making experience, as a willing participant.
FM radio, TV, film, and theater brought me sounds from a polished mix of musical recording artists in genres including musical standards, rock & roll, pop, R&B, soul, and all the rest (including TV theme songs, commercial jingles, country, heavy metal, rap, etc.) Vinyl records and cassette tapes allowed me to collect and replay the songs I loved most.
Every now and then I hear a song (or a remake of a song) that has some personal significance. Sometimes I seek them out and add them to a playlist on my iPhone. Sometimes they come — willingly or not — to the forefront of my mind, if I hear just a few words of a familiar lyric or a few notes of a familiar melody.
Here are a few of my favorites, grouped by the “olden days (…happy golden days of yore)” that they remind me of:
Preschool
Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul, & Mary - 1963
Yellow Submarine - The Beatles - 1966
Daydream Believer - The Monkees - 1967
The Beatles, The Monkees, Pete Seeger, and Peter, Paul & Mary were a ubiquitous part of the musical scene in the 60s when I was young. These songs came to me by way of TV and radio amid the counter-cultural movement of the 60s.
Folk songs in particular - the songs of Pete Seeger; Woody Guthrie; Bob Dylan; and Peter, Paul & Mary (500 miles, Where have all the flowers gone, et. al.) have strong associations with the Peace movement. I wasn’t a participant in the peace movement of the 70s (except in the style of my homemade clothes), but I came to love and appreciate the music with greater and greater depth as the years went by.
Sherwood Bates Elementary School
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head - BJ Thomas - 1969
Burning Bridges - The Mike Curb Congregation (1970)
These two songs were indelibly etched in my brain when I had to learn them for the year-end school assembly performance that was given at Sherwood Bates elementary school, three blocks from my house. Both came from popular movies of the time. Raindrops… was appropriated from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), a wistful story about a pair of idealistic outlaws, and Burning Bridges was taken from “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970), an action movie with an undercurrent of antiwar feeling.
I don’t have any particular love for these songs. But the time-jump I make to the risers of the elementary school auditorium is instantaneous whenever I hear a few bars.
Camp songs
Sweet Sweet Spirit - Doris Akers - 1962
Pass It On - Kurt Kaiser - 1969
What the World Needs Now (Love, Sweet Love) - Burt Bacharach - 1965
I first heard these songs at camp, and I learned them by heart. Sweet, Sweet Spirit was sung every night at vespers (evening gathering for worship) at Camp Willow Run, a summer camp on Lake Gaston.
Pass It On was learned by an actual campfire (bringing a real immediacy to the lyrics), on a Sunday School retreat put together by the “J-O-Y” Young Adult class of Hayes Barton United Methodist Church.
Love, Sweet Love was the musical theme of a Vacation Bible School experience, also from my childhood. All three songs reflect the innocence and idealism of the time.
I learned later that Sweet Sweet Spirit started as a gospel hymn written by Doris Akers, later covered and transformed into a “popular” evangelical hymn by artists including Bill and Gloria Gaither, Jimmy Swaggart, and even Elvis Presley (and his background singers). For me, it was a song of quiet reflection and communal spirit at my home away from home, at summer camp.
Pass it On has an equally unusual origin. According to one source, the song’s writer, Kurt Kaiser, said:
In 1969, Ralph Carmichael and I collaborated on a musical, Tell It Like It Is. It was written to get young people involved in the Church. After reviewing what we had written, we decided there needed to be a closer, a modern ‘Just As I Am’ ….
On a Sunday night I was sitting in our den by the fireplace where there were remnants of a fire, and it occurred to me that it only takes a spark to get a fire going … and the rest came very quickly.
Both songs are so lovely and so calming — and were so well memorized, in a self-soothing playback in my head — that they naturally became my favorites to sing at bedtime as lullabies for my daughters, when they were only one or two years old.
My Father’s Death
Beth - Kiss -1976
If You Leave Me Now - Chicago -1976
If I Can’t Have You -Yvonne Elliman - 1977
Sam - Olivia Newton-John - 1977
These four songs (and especially the first two) take me back to a time of intense grief, in 1977, after the death of my father. Of course these are all break-up songs, but the feeling of loss after a break-up is no different than the feeling of heartache after the death of a loved one.
They were all playing on FM radio, and I can still remember the tinny sound that the songs had coming across my small, black transistor radio (with a long, extendable chrome antenna).I would find myself listening to the words, and the rich orchestrations, as I sequestered myself in my room, or on a hideaway perch of the sandstone embankment behind the grocery store down the road. For three or four minutes at a time, I would find myself entranced by the melancholy songs, snapping back to reality only when the DJ began to introduce the next tune.
NC School of Science & Math
Let the Good Times Roll - The Cars - 1978
Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar - 1980
Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg - 1981
Dream Weaver - Gary Wright -1975
Let the Good Times Roll and Hit Me With Your Best Shot sort of exemplified our feelings of freedom and defiance at the School of Science and Math. Other songs that encapsulated our struggles, hopes, and victories included Under Pressure, by Queen; Don’t Stop Believin’, by Journey; and Celebration, by Kool & the Gang.
But Same Old Lang Syne is the song that really pulls at my heartstrings and has me waxing nostalgic. The nostalgia is written into the lyrics, and mournfully sung by Dan Fogelberg:
We drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence
Another auld lang syne…
When he sings, “Just for a moment, I was back at school, And felt that old familiar pain”, it’s truly gut-wrenching — the realization and acceptance that we can’t go back and relive the past, no matter how much we might like to.
Dream Weaver has a different, but equally interesting, association for me, and for all of the class of 1982. Our art teacher, Joe Liles, took lots of photos, creating slide shows set to music, which were played at least twice during our stay. Dream Weaver was the very first song on the slide show from our senior year, a slide show that was re-screened at each and every reunion.
When I hear the burbling, synthesized arpeggios at the beginning of the song, I’m instantly transported back in time, to a dark, crowded room in school, surrounded by classmates, watching the slides fade in and out. Over the years, this tradition has survived, of watching familiar faces from out of the past, set to the playlist of the era, starting with Dream Weaver.
My Student and Work-Exchanges
50 Years - Uncanny X-men - 1985
Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy - 1985
Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now - The Smiths - 1984
Memories - Elvis Presley - 1968
The primarily American soundtrack of my life was happily interrupted on two occasions — when I went on a student exchange to Adelaide, South Australia; and when I went on a work exchange to Ripon, North Yorkshire in England.
During my nine months in Australia, I occasionally went to the common area to watch TV, where sometimes we would see a cricket match, and sometimes we would see videos from the week’s top-twenty pop songs. I recorded the show on a cassette tape on one occasion, and I’m glad I did. It allowed me to replay some uniquely Australian songs from the Uncanny X-Men, Dream Academy, Do Re Mi, and Mental as Anything. Around that same time, INXS, Men at Work, and Crowded House were also making waves in both Australia and America.
50 Years is a beautifully unique song that dares to wonder “Where will we be in fifty years?” As time goes by, the answer to that question comes closer and closer. And it becomes more and more meaningful, now—40 years since I first recorded that TV broadcast, commercials and all. How great would it be to be back in Adelaide with the Aussies, toasting to our mutual health, and recalling those impromptu dorm gatherings, when we joked with each other, gathered around a box of wine, some grapes, and cheese, on the thin carpet of the dorm room floor.
In contrast, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, reminds me of the three months I spent without hot water in a spacious but lonely flat in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Although I never had the gumption to get help with the pilot light of the hot water heater, I had lots of fun and easily made friends at the amusement park where I worked.
One of my friends, who was about my age (at 22, I was one of the older seasonal workers), was shocked to learn that I had never heard of The Smiths… or The Housemartins… or The Cult… or Echo & The Bunnymen… or even The Cure. So before I left for home he gave me a real old fashioned mixtape, carefully crafted with an assortment of British punk and new wave artists, divided evenly between Side A and Side B.
It was so unique — so different — but so eye-opening to me at the time. It was a reminder to step outside of my culture and my comfort zone every now and then, and enjoy something completely new and different. Ironically, he ended the tape with the incongruous, but completely appropriate Elvis song, Memories — a nod to the ephemeral nature of music in our cultural zeitgeist.
Courtship
Soul Provider - Michael Bolton - 1989
Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt - 1989
We had chosen songs by Gordon Lightfoot (Beautiful) and James Taylor (Shower the People) for our wedding, and we listened to the tapes of those artists frequently, but I think that the soulful sound of Bolton’s Soul Provider and the raspy blues of Raitt’s Nick of Time more perfectly embodied the passionate longing we felt during brief separations, and the profound relief that we felt when we were reunited, back in the early days.
Parenthood
Power of Two - Indigo Girls - 1994
When You Say Nothing At All - Allison Krauss - 1994
Parenthood is a messy and pressure-filled time. Children are crying for contact, for food, for burping, or out of sheer unmitigated boredom. During our early years of parenthood we heard a lot of “children’s music” which was, in my opinion, just unredeemable pap, often setting early educational concepts (numbers, shapes, colors) to the tune of a familiar nursery song. It was maddening to hear watered-down, Muzak-adjacent versions over and over (and over and over) again, with new, but equally insipid lyrics, each time.
So when Yanni, and later, Uncle John and Mikey, came along, with at least something original and somewhat entertaining to play (Ear-flicker Man), we had to embrace them.
But before those pre-K pseudo-educational songs, and the child-focused pop artists, we used to play songs we actually enjoyed; and two of those were Power of Two and When You Say Nothing At All. Each, in its own way, encapsulates the bottomless well of love that we felt when we had two well-rested, well-fed, and happy twin babies.
European Vacation
Home - Michael Bublé - 2005.
I could go on naming scores of songs (and in fact, I’ve done that below in the Appendix), but it seems apt that I draw the line at the song that we first heard twenty years ago, while we (Steve, Dianne, Jasmine, and Samantha) were on vacation in Europe — our first overseas trip with Jasmine and Samantha.
While we were away, we heard show tunes from the West End performance of Mary Poppins in London. We heard traditional Irish Music on a pub tour in Dublin. And we heard classical music at a James Galway flute-workshop soiree in Interlaken.
But from time to time, we overheard, in cafes or in the shops of the Old Town districts, a new release on the radio. That song, was called Home (sung by Michael Buble) and it perfectly described our circumstances. It really was “another sunny day”. We really were “in Paris and Rome”. We really were “surrounded by a million people” at times (St. Mark’s square, surely). And although we had a lot of fun… and adventure, we really did — at the end of the day — “wanna go home”.
After three weeks — and checking off each block of time on the spreadsheet of our daily itinerary — we finally did return home, happily returning to the daily routines of work and school.
Years have passed since all those things that happened in Europe: since losing the camera and the stuffed bunny rabbit (or having it stolen) in the Gare de Lyon; since buying the girls’ first paninis at the Embarcadero; since stumbling upon an incredible castle (Caerlaverock castle) in Scotland, on the way to the ferry port to Northern Ireland; since tossing umbrellas on the footpath to Trummelbach Falls; since carrying a faintingly ill Jasmine off of the vaporetto in the Grand Canal, of Venice and a dozen other memories.
Michael Bublé’s song can bring me back to the time when all those experiences were new and invigorating — when we were having too much excitement to go home, but we could travel back across the ocean instantly — vicariously, through song, for 3 minutes and 46 seconds.
The Miracle of Music
Music is the poetry of our age. We listen to it over and over. We imbue the lyrics with meaning — perhaps even with meanings that they never had to begin with. We make them our own. They become a source of comfort — of solace. A source of free expression — of revelry. A source of social engagement, — of revolution.
But the tempo and rhythm… the melody and harmony… the voice… the embellishments of the backing instrumental… they all take the lyrics — the poetry — to another place. They make the poetry of the song even more memorable — somehow matching, in musical form, the circumstances of our lives.
I’ve only scratched the surface (the grooved vinyl surface) of the role of music in my life. There has been so much of it along the way that it would take pages and pages to describe the meaning of it all. I only want to expose myself to… and immerse myself in… as much of it as I can.
And I easily can, because the timeline of music seems to have limitless boundaries. Spreading back through history (even as far back as the roots in percussion and dance — chant and worship). Spreading across other lands and cultures (with differing instruments and differing chord structures). Spreading into the future — new styles developing… new creations from the influences of the past…
forming the soundtrack of my life.
*************************
A partial list compiled on my iPhone Notes app
(Music from soundtracks from musicals, and music from TV theme songs and jingles, have, sadly, not been included.)
Childhood:
Peter, Paul, and Mary - (Songs by the campfire) Puff the Magic Dragon, 500 miles, Leavin’ on a Jet Plane, Blowin’ in the Wind.
The Beatles - Yellow Submarine, Hey Jude
The Monkees - I’m a Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Daydream Believer, A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
Three Dog Night - Joy to the World, Black & White, Shambala.
BJ Thomas - Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head
Kurt Kaiser - Pass it On
Doris Akers - Sweet, Sweet Spirit
Burt Bacharach - What the World Needs Now (Love, Sweet Love)
Just As I Am - Billy Graham crusade - Altar invitational
Elementary School:
Olivia Newton-John - Have You Never Been Mellow, Please Mister Please - 1975
John Denver - Country Roads, Calypso
Jim Croce - I Got a Name, Time in a Bottle, Photographs & Memories
Roberta Flack - Killing me Softly, Where is the Love, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Sam Cooke - Chain Gang, Cupid, Bring it on Home
Kiss - Beth - 1976
Chicago - If You Leave Me Now - 1976
Olivia Newton-John - Sam - 1977
Yvonne Elliman - If I Can’t Have You - 1977
Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love - 1977
Stevie Wonder - (Songs in the Key of Life) - I Wish, Isn’t She Lovely
Bob Marley - (Legend) - No Woman, No Cry, Stir It Up, Waiting in Vain
Doobie Brothers - (Best Of)
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
Steve Miller Band - (Greatest hits) Jungle Love, Take the Money and Run, Fly Like an Eagle, Serenade
Jimmy Buffett - Come Monday, Fruitcakes, Margaritaville, Pencil Thin Mustache
Boston - More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind
Billy Joel (The Stranger) Movin’ Out, Vienna, Italian Restaurant (Songs in the attic)
Eagles - (Hotel California) Hotel California, New Kid in Town, Life in the Fast Lane, Wasted Time
Heart - (Dreamboat Annie) Barracuda, Magic Man, Crazy on You
Queen - We will rock you/We are the champions, Under pressure, Another one bites the dust
Dan Fogelberg - Longer Than, Same Old Lang Syne
Gary Wright - Dream Weaver
Journey
Hall & Oates
Cars - Let the good times roll, Just what I needed
Pat Benatar- We Belong, Wuthering Heights, Shadows of the night
Bruce Springsteen - (Born to run) Born to run, Thunder Road, Jungleland, Hungry heart
Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler- Sultans of Swing
Pink Floyd - (The Dark Side of the Moon) - Time, Speak to me, Breathe
Grover Washington Jr.
Sade - Smooth Operator, Sweetest Taboo
Amy Grant - (Age to Age) El Shaddai, In a little while
Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight, Against All Odds, One More Night
The Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane, Holiday, Wind of Change.
Australian Pop Chart: (Australian bands recorded from weekly top 20 TV show)
Uncanny X-Men - 50 Years
Mental As Anything - Live it Up
The Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town
Do-Ré-Mi - Man Overboard)
Mark’s mixtape - (English punk bands)
Housemartins - We’re Not Deep
The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry
The Smiths - Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
Echo & the Bunnymen - Seven Seas
The Cult - Rain
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Brand New Friend
Bon Jovi - Livin’ on a Prayer
10,000 Maniacs - (In my tribe) What’s the Matter Here?
Crowded House - Don’t Dream It’s Over, Into Temptation
Gordon Lightfoot - (Gord’s Gold) Sundown, Beautiful, Rainy Day People, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway
James Taylor - You’ve got a friend, Shower the people, Carolina in my mind
Michael Bolton - Soul Provider
Bonnie Raitt - (Nick of Time) Nick of Time, Have a Heart, Too soon to tell
Jackson Brown - (Running on Empty) Running on empty, Shaky town, Love needs a heart, The Load out/Stay
Blues Traveler - Run-Around, Hook
Hootie & the Blowfish - Hold my Hand, Only Wanna Be with You
Cravin’ Melon - Sweet Tea
Gin Blossoms - Found Out About You
Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery, Sweet Surrender
Indigo Girls - (Swamp Ophelia) Language or the Kiss, Least Complicated, Power of Two (Nomads) Hammer & Nail, Watersheds, You and me of the 10,000 wars (Rites of passage) Ghost, Love will come to you
Allison Krauss- Baby, now that I’ve found you, When you say nothing at all.
Michael Bublé- Home
Dixie Chicks - (Taking the Long Way) Long Way Around, Not Ready to Make Nice, Favorite Year, Baby Hold On
Colin Hay - (Man at work) Beautiful World, Waiting for my real life to begin
Barenaked Ladies - Elf’s lament, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Mervyn Cadell - The Cat Carol
Dayna Manning - It’s in Every One of Us
Pink - (M!ssundaztood) Get the Party Started
Jason Mraz- Lucky, If It Kills Me
Maroon 5 (Songs About Jane) This Love, Sunday Morning, Sweetest Goodbye
Green Day - (American Idiot) Give Me Novacaine, Wake me up when September ends (21st Century Breakdown)
Santana - (Supernatural) Smooth
Athenaeum - (Radiance) What I didn’t know, Different situation
Evanescence (Fallen) - Bring me to life, My Immortal
No comments:
Post a Comment