The Power of Music

I was reminded this week of the power of music. It’s something that I learned long ago but I got a reminder recently on a nice warm summer night.

I’ve always known how a song can come on the radio and instantly take you back to another time. It’s not necessarily the first time you heard that song but it’s a time that you associate with it.

I have songs that take me back to my childhood; there are songs we sing in church that remind me of my mom; some 70’s songs remind me of when I started in radio.

“Crocodile Rock” by Elton John takes me back to when I was 12 and visiting my cousins in Maine and playing the juke box at the Rec Center where my uncle ran things.

“Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie was our wedding song so that one is special.

This week I went to the Darius Rucker/ Lady Antebellum concert. Even though they played at the Xfinity Center in Mansfied, we saw them two nights earlier in Virginia Beach. (I know, it would have been a much shorter ride to just go up Rte 495.)

Priscilla and I had made plans to go and see the Air Show at the Navy base where our son Doug works. He’s been there six years and we had never gone. I discovered the concert was going to be two days before the Air Show so I encouraged my wife to adjust her vacation so we could do both.

What a show! Both of them: the concert and the Blue Angels air show!

At the concert Darius sang “It Won’t Be Like This For Long”, a slow song and the song that my daughter Sarah and I danced to at her wedding. It’s all about raising a child, having her wake up and crawl in your bed or not want to leave you at daycare. The struggles you can go through when the children are young.

Some of the lyrics:

“Four years later bout four thirty
She’s crawling in their bed,
And when he drops her off at preschool
She’s clinging to his leg.
The teacher peels her off of him
He says what can I do
She says now don’t you worry
This will only last a week or two.

It wont be like this for long
One day soon we’ll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
It wont be like this for long

One day soon she’ll be a teenager
And at times you’ll think she hates him
Then he’ll walk her down the isle
And he’ll raise her veil

But right now she’s up and crying
And the truth is that he don’t mind.
As he kisses her good night
And she says her prayers
He lays down there beside her
Till her eyes are finally closed
And just watching her it breaks his heart
Cause he already knows

It wont be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah this phase is gonna fly by
He’s trying to hold on
It won’t be like this for long.”

Yep, I cried! Sarah was sitting right beside me so we hugged and swayed to the music.

That song took me back. It took me back to picking her up at Little People’s College; it took me back to getting her to take a nap in her bedroom; yes it took me back to the wedding but it also brought me back to my stroke rehab because that was what kept me going.

The power of music.

I can see now why some writers struggle to find just the right lyric.

We all have our own stories that we bring to these songs. I have mostly happy memories when I hear songs. True there are some that remind me of people who are gone now, but I remember the good times we had together.

I always think of my brother when I hear “Take Me Home Country Roads” because he was a huge John Denver fan, but they’re good memories. I remember him healthy and happy playing his own guitar.

I hope you have many songs that bring you many memories. And don’t be sad if they remind you of a person that’s no longer here. You had that time together and you’ll always have that song.