Friday, March 30, 2012

Songs to Live By

I've always loved music.  When I was younger I did not care so much about Bluegrass or (real as opposed to 'the new' Country) though I have come to love it later in life.  My early days were more top 40.  We had one station we could get that was a top 40 station.  WKEY from Huntington, WV.  I listened to them constantly.  When I was not in school I'd nap in the back bedroom between radio broadcasts of the top 40.  I saved my money to buy "Hit Parader" magazine every week and I'd memorize the lyrics to all the top 40 songs of the week.  Forty years later I still know a lot of them.

Some of them made a real mark on me.  I only had radio so I never knew which groups were white and which were black.  I always thought "Chicago" was  a black group.  Wrong.  I always thought Dobie Grey was white.  Wrong.  Isn't is amazing at what you can think when there is no visual evidence?  That should make you think.

One of my favorite songs during that period was "Brother Louie".  Can't recall who did the song but I can remember a lot of the lyrics:  "She was black as the night, Louie was whiter than white, there's a danger when you taste brown sugar, Louie fell in love over night".

Another was "Living in the Love of the Common People":  "It's a good thing you don't have bus fare, You'd lose it through the hole in your pocket, in the snow on the ground, Walking to town, trying to find a job.  Listen at little sister, crying 'cause she doesn't have a dress without a patch, for the party to go"...  It was just music but it opened up a world for me that I could not live in or really understand at the time.  Skin color was meaningless.  It was all about the words and the music.  And, the new thoughts those words and music put in your mind if you were willing to listen to it and think about it.

There have been so many songs in my life that have special meaning I cannot even begin to recall or state them all.  I think the first one was, "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who.  "But my dreams are not as empty, as my conscience seems to be".  Then Bob Seger with "Against the Wind":  "I'm older now but I'm still running against the wind".  Kansas doing "Dust in the Wind".  I don't need to quote this one as it cannot be taken in small parts.  Just listen to it.  That is me.

So many songs over so many years... Tony Rich with "Nobody Knows it But Me".  Peabo Bryson with "Can You Stop the Rain".   Then there are the Bluegrass songs I came to love later in life.  The Stanley Brothers with "Stone Walls and Steel Bars", "Roving Gambler", "Man of Constant Sorrow".  Earl Scruggs (RIP Earl) with "Foggy Mountain Breakdown".   Just so much music over the years I love.

I know I won't be able to have all the songs I love as "funeral" songs as it would take way too danged long.  It is even harder to decide than what songs you want to remember.  What songs do you want remembered by?

No comments:

Post a Comment