I happened to come across two posts that I shared this week. One was a begrudging acknowledgment that the Ukraine war might not be as black and white as the Biden folks tried to claim. The other was a horrible abuse of power and false imprisonment perpetuated by the Trump administration. As a US citizen I can tell you that these days you risk losing friends and family and being branded whichever political view you claim. I personally don't do politics anymore mainly because of that. Everyone has a reason to justify their hatred and it gets nasty. So to cleanse my mind of Donnie and Joe, JD and Bernie and all the rest I go to my love of music, comedy and the paranormal.
With that being said I wanted to do a blog on song's that have influenced me or made me think. Now music doesn't always have to make me think for me to enjoy it. From my youthful stoned enjoyment of KISS to my drunken partying to Hank Jr. singing "Family tradition." a song is often just a good beat a loud guitar or a memory of teenage angst. Nothing especially deep. But some songs stay with me because of lyrics or the story they tell. They may or may not be my favorite. Because with songs and me it depends on my mood and time and place. So I really can't say that any one song is my favorite.
I'm also a little odd because there are times when I really don't want to hear music at all. I love to get quiet and as an introvert I can tell you that there is a difference between privacy which I enjoy and loneliness which I certainly don't enjoy.
But these are some songs that tell a story. That paint such a vivid picture that I see the scenes both of the songs and my own life that they evoke. So, this is a hate free zone. No politics, religion or hate speech.
1. Willin by Lowell George. This was covered in the seventies by Linda Ronstadt and her cover has always stayed with me. These lyrics and her heartfelt belting out of this song captivated me in my youth. Warped by the rain. driven by the snow. Drunk and dirty but don't you know that I'm still. Willin. It causes me to remember my mispent youth. When I would wake up after a night of crazziness and even of having suffered some abuse in a bar or an argument and still I was standing. The weed, whites and wine part just paints a picture of a long night and an early morning hangover. No, I'm not saying those are good things. Drunk, Stoned and stupid is no way to go through life. I'm just saying it paints a picture.And in my youth I could feel these lyrincs.
2. I'm so lonesome I could cry. Hank Williams. My mother loved country music I grew up with a step dad who played the guitar and a mother who sang country music constantly. I didn't love country music. I rebelled against it. But, it still stuck As a matter of fact when arthritis isn't acting up and you hand me a six string I can play almost any song from that era From Hank to George to Merle to Loretta to Patsy Cline. But I'm so lonesome I could cry is easily the best and most vivid story song ever written. At least I think so. Just this verse alone "The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky. And as I wonder where you are. I'm so lonesome I could cry." Or this "I"m never seen a night so long. and time goes crawling by. The moon just went behind the clouds to hide it's face and cry. And this one reminds me of a night in Altoona, Alabama back in my youth in the country."Hear that lonesome wipporwill. He sounds too blue to fly. The midnight train is whining low. I"m so lonesome I could cry." Maybe it's because I'm Southern or maybe it's just the imagery of a lonely night. But it sticks man.
3. Midnight Train to Georgia. Gladys Knight.
Ah Gladys Knight.Hearing her belt out this song is perfection,. "Said he's going back to find. What's left of his world.: "The world he left behind. Not so long ago." Gotta say that the thought of gong back is something we all think about and rarely if ever can do. But this man is tired. Been through enough. Wants to get back home. This woman has got to be with him. So, she's getting on that train too. I always said I wanted this song played at my funeral. For some reason this always filled me with hope. Even though I might find my body old and failing one day. I'm gonna get on that train and get back home. To where I can be who I really am. Maybe I"m reading it wrong. But art is always a personal thing in the end. so maybe I can't be wrong.
4. When you are Old. W.B. Yeats.
This of course isn't a song. It's a poem. Now I"m not a poem person. But this one has always spoken to me. I first heard it even though it's an old poem in the 1980's during a "New Twilight Zone" episode titled "Her Pilgrim Soul." It involed technology and research and reincarnation. The poem was read at the end and it was always spiritual for me. Some say it isn't uplifting. That it's about loss. but I don't think so. I think it's about optimism and the passage of time which really doesn't effect love or the soul. So I'm going to type out the full poem here. It's a short one. And it's my absolute favorite.
"When you are old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire,take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace, and loved your beauty with love false or true.But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you. Ad loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars ,murmur a little sadly, how love fled and paced upon the mountains overhead. And hid his face among a crowd of stars...W.B. Yeats
Now I admit that sounds sad. But I always thought the face (soul) is eternal and will be revealed in all it's glory as will the face of the pilgrim soul once we are beyond the stars. Beyond this temporary world.
Welp with that I'm done with this one. It wasn't quite what I was expecting to write about today. I'm really not in a melancholy mood. But, it's always a release for me to write things down. If you read all my blabbering I thank you.
Peace!
