Strolling down musical memory lane
We lost Merle Haggard last week, a great country music songwriter and singer. I was painting a school building in Birmingham, Alabama, when he came out with "Are The Good Times Really Over." I think the year was 1982, and little did we know they weren't.
I have a little bit of Merle on my iPod, a contraption I finally learned how to use out of necessity (saves on batteries) and he brings back some good times.
Music. Is there anything better?
I will confess that I am not, nor have I ever been, a musician, having been rejected as a 10-year-old trumpet player in the Smithwood Elementary School band, but brother do I love music. We all go through rejections at some point, mine just came at 10, and darn near any other year I chose to try to do something I wasn't ready to do.
I would have attempted a music appreciation class in college but, having flunked art appreciation, that did not seem like a good idea. I figured if the music teacher took music as seriously as the art teacher took art, it was no place for me. But I digress. Music has always been there for me and the fact that the Smithwood band director didn't see talent in a 10-year-old with a $5 silver trumpet never kept me from loving it.
Mom and dad were married to Irving Berlin's "I'll Be Loving You Always" in 1946, and we played it at his memorial service in 2009 as he had indeed loved her "always."
In '58, the "end of the year" school play saw me singing, "You'll Never Walk Alone" and indeed I haven't. The years accumulating with loved ones and friends who made sure I never walked alone.
I was listening to a crystal radio the day they announced Buddy Holly's demise. Sam Cooke was singing, "You Send Me," when the announcer broke in over the static in 1959.
I thought the "Big Bopper" was a black guy until I watched the news that night. "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" came out in '68 after Otis went down with the Bar-Kays and it played in the dorm at Georgia Southern while I typed $5 term papers for students who were smarter but hadn't taken Imogene Young's typing class at Warner Robins High School. In '67 I found myself bogged down in a Kathleen mud hole, trying to convince some girl from Macon that fishing could be fun. Smokey Robinson's "More Love" played on the radio in the 1959 Chevy as she hit the accelerator and spewed mud all over a pair of white shorts. I could go on but, suffice it to say, throughout the years I have experienced many different genres of music, and have found comfort, motivation, joy, entertainment — and yes, humiliation — while listening to different pieces.
I remember seeing the wonderful Irish tenor, John Gary, in Savannah in 1973 or '74 during a St. Patrick's Day celebration. If you've never heard him sing, "Once Upon a Time" you've missed some beautiful music. For many of us the world back then was indeed, "sweeter than we knew." And so, along with beautiful melodies and thoughtful lyrics, I find memories. Memories of good times, wonderful people, dreams, disappointments and a few "what-might-have-beens" that make life interesting and worth living.
I suppose, it's those memories that keep me listening and loading up the iPod. The ability to put good stuff on there and remember makes the day sweeter and keeps me grounded as I recall as they say, "only the good stuff" and perhaps the good parts to the bad stuff. When I hear the music being written and sold today I wonder what memories will be called up by those listening. I also wonder about the life experiences of those writing. How different they were from mine and how fortunate I was to come along when some beautiful music was written and now to be able to listen to music worth remembering. "Wished a Ford and a Chevy still lasted 10 years like they should." It would not surprise me in the least if that '59 Chevy was still running.
Sonny Harmon is a professor emeritus at Georgia Military College. Visit his blog at http://sharmon09.blogspot.com.
This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Strolling down musical memory lane ."