‘Scuse Me While I Sing This Song

I have always been greatly fond of music. I remember, as a child, sitting on a blanket at the park with my parents, watching my siblings playing and thinking of different songs that would be perfect for whatever was going on. I thought I was strange for doing this all the time, but I never actually had the thought, “What song would go good here?” It always just came to me. It was like breathing, it was just what I did, like it was a part of me. I would chide myself for being so weird, but always figured I would grow up to be the person putting together music videos or selecting music for movies or commercials. I’m not sure I actually ever spoke of these feelings to anyone, even my mother (who I was always very close to) or my best friend.

Music has always been a large part of my life. When I think back on fond memories, I, like most people, think of where I was, what was going on, or who was wearing what, but I can almost always remember a song to go along with it. When I hear songs now, they take me back to a special moment, like a time machine in my mind. For example, every single time I hear any Patsy Cline song, I think of my grandfather.

I remember when I was about three or four, he and my grandmother had a “vacation home” (a double wide trailer) in Cumberland, KY, and my mother, brother and I would go for a week to visit with them. There wasn’t a TV there, or as grandpa called it, the “Boob Tube”, so we listened to a lot of music on 8-track. Patsy Cline was his favorite, although they had others, like Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson. I remember many mornings, I would wake up and he would be in the living room listening to Patsy while reading his morning newspaper. I wanted to be just like my grandpa, so I would crawl up into my grandma’s empty chair and “read” my Barbie coloring book. And this is the exact moment I think of whenever I hear Patsy.

To me, music isn’t just music. It’s not just about entertainment or dancing. It’s so much more than that! It’s a keeper or time, the teller of history! Not only your personal history, but that of others. If you do more than just “jam” to a song, if you actually listen to what the singer is saying, you can learn so much more! Take the music made around the time of Woodstock, for example. Yes, they came out with some great songs, but they were also telling you what was important to them. They weren’t just singing about love, but about the unfairness of the war that was going on. They were using their music to try to bring people together, to bring about peace. I personally believe that music made during that era was some of the most powerful music. They seemed to feel love so much deeper.

I know some of you are probably amazed that I even know songs from a time way before I was born. I get this sense of shock from a lot of older folks when I can actually sing along, word for word, a song that was from “before my time.” I was actually at a Doobie Brothers concert a few weeks back, which was AWESOME, by the way! They can still rock a crowd like nobody’s business! Anyway, I started chatting with a lady who was standing next to me and we eventually began singing and dancing to every song together. We were having a great time, just enjoying the music. The band went off stage, and as we waited for Peter Frampton to come on, she took a good look at me and said, “Hey! How old are you? You don’t look old enough to know the Doobie Brothers!” I told her that I was 37, and that I LOVED the Doobie Brothers! She asked me how I even knew who they were. I wanted to tell her my opinions on music, but thought the conversation was too heavy for the amount of time that we had to talk, so I just told her that I grew up listening to them on my mother’s record player.

What I wanted to say was that I don’t believe that any music belongs to any one age group, or even any one stereo-type, for that matter. I listen to a wide variety of music. No, I can’t say that I listen to ALL types of music, but there are few that I don’t enjoy. I don’t just listen to music from the 80’s, 90’s and now, the decades that I grew up in. I listen to music from the 60’s and 70’s, too. I listen to country, rock, pop, R&B, reggae, etc. How are we to ever understand each other if we don’t take time to listen to what the other guy thinks is important? And that comes out in the music of that time. So, to me, when I go to a concert, and I see a younger person, who shouldn’t even know the person singing or the lyrics to their songs, but yet, there they are, belting it out and dancing along, I applaud them! That makes me happy! And I wonder if they are on the same absurd musical journey that I am.