Music With Meaning
Every once in a while I hear a song on the radio from a time long past, a time long forgotten. Sometimes it's the words, sometimes the rhythm, sometimes the back-beat that sparks a remembrance of where I was or what I was doing, the last time I heard it. It either makes me chuckle or it brings a tear to my eyes.
Why is that? why do I remember better when an event or action is tied to music? It's often pop music that evokes my memories. Why? Well, when I was growing up through my teens and into early manhood, this music was played in the background, whether I selected it or not. There is always something on the radio, in school, bars, clubs, stores, at work and at home that is contemporary and is almost accidentally attached to a particular time, place or action. Pop music is also of the moment. For example, when I listen to popular music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s it almost always evokes a specific memory.
There is something more abstract about, western classical music, which has become more detached from its original time and is harder to place.
I'm starting a new category for this blog: Music With Meaning to me. I think most of us as teen-angers listened to music. I started with WLS
rock & roll. WLS was probably the biggest radio station in Chicago,
I think it is still going. Today, we call it "classic"
rock, just because it is "old". Some of my oldest memories come from the radios in the first
house I lived in, 6828 West 96th Street (I can't believe I STILL
remember it) in Oaklawn Illinois; are Blue Water Line by The Brothers Four, Volare by Domenico Modugno, Witch Doctor by David Seville, Tequila by The Champs, Wear My Ring Around Your Neck by Elvis Presley, The little Nash Rambler by the Playmates, Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry,
I
remember sitting at our dinning room table eating my breakfast before
school and hearing the Blue Water Line on the radio. This was a folk
song about a rail line that went through Chicago, it was going to be
dismantled. It was kind of like a train song much earlier called Wabash Cannonball. Trains were big business in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Now, they've pretty much faded from all our memories.
I've included Volare because Dad hated it. It was a top song so it was played a lot. To much for Dad.
Witch Doctor was a fun song. Much like The little Nash Rambler. You have to be a "car" guy to really understand it...Then there was the One Eyed one Horned Flying Purple People Eater.
A short while ago I heard a song that I hadn't heard for a very long time. I knew it from the first note. Gerry Rafferty singing Baker Street. It takes me back to both good and bad times. mostly bad. If you knew me just after I quit the Navy, you would understand why it means so much to me. I was a different person then, much like the one who the lyrics were written about. I remember sitting in a tavern across the street from my apartment listening to it. Back then it was sad and made me feel sad. Today when I heard it I became happy. I've conquered many things. I think if I had to pick one song out of all I've heard, rock, classic rock, country & western, easy listening, classical, as a favorite, Baker Street would be at the top. It makes me think very deeply about life. I think it probably does me good to be reminded of how low I was and how far I've come.
