This is a hard one to post, because I rarely listen to my favorite song as well, which is coming up on a later date, so I chose a different "favorite" that rarely gets any playtime on my speakers. When I was in college I was required to take one semester of choir, which I had never been in because I'm not that great of a singer. I was thrilled when I learned that we would be singing something in English as well, Mendelsohnn's Elijah. I fell in love with all of the music, but there is one piece toward the beginning, one that wasn't even part of the choral part sung by a male soloist titled "If With All Your Hearts."
The lyrics say it best with the opening lines:
If with all your heart ye truly seek Me, Ye shall ever surely find Me, Thus saith our God. The middle part goes on from the human perspective asking where to find Him, then coming back to the line above at the end. Mendelssohn has always been a favorite for me, but I had never heard of this piece, so it certainly was a treat to be able to enjoy this music all semester.
During my internship for music therapy I discovered a lot of great music I didn't know I liked. Among these genres were Soul, Blues, and Hilife. The latter one is one that people usually don't understand when I tell them about it. Hilife music is African music, specifically from Ghana region, but has American jazz influences as well. I've always been fascinated by songs from other countries and ended up doing a special project in which I made two cds representing the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. I came up with the idea after seeing that the care center in which I was working had very little cultural music, most of it being golden oldies and classical. I made the cds on my own computer, so I got to keep the downloaded files as well.
The song that really gets me dancing is called "Jeun Ko Ku (Chop 'n Quench)" by Fela Kuti and Nigeria 70. There are no lyrics, it is just 7 minutes of African jazz with a great beat. I've actually used this in sessions for drumming circles because of its steady beat and rhythm. It's one of those songs that you listen to and you can't help but tap your feet.
I'm a fan of the golden oldies and am convinced this is why I tend to be able to connect with that generation better in my professional career. I grew up listening to bubblegum pop, classic rock, and rockabilly music. I've always enjoyed this era of music, especially the 70's, but really discovered a love of soul music before I even knew what it was. I later learned what it was during my internship for music therapy and it opened up a world of great music for me.
For this post I've chosen the soul song "Stand By Me," which I first heard in the movie of the same name, adapted from the Stephen King novella, The Body. I first saw this movie when I was probably no more than eleven, and it was on broadcast tv, so of course all the swearing was cut out, making it seem like a poorly edited movie to me at the time. When I actually saw the real version about ten years later, so much more made sense.
This song has always made me cry and I'm really not sure why. I could name many other songs that make me cry for different reasons, such as reminding me of lost loved ones or of a hard time in my life, but this one is one of the few songs that is just so beautiful that the melody itself makes me tear up every time. This makes it hard to use this song in my music therapy sessions as I have to be very cautious not to get too emotional and remain professional. I think it also speaks volumes that this is literally the only song (as of 2018) that has charted in the top 10 almost twenty-five years apart, with no modifications made to the recording whatsoever. What people heard on their radios in 1961 is the same as what we heard in 1986. Absolutely timeless.
When I was in college I spent a lot of time in my dorm hanging out with my neighbors, forming some close friendships. We would often spend time relaxing, just listening to music, sitting in the hallways talking. On one of these occasions I was in my across the hall neighbor's dorm and she was playing a song I didn't really recognize. She restarted the song, claiming, "You've got to hear the whole thing, from the beginning, this song is pretty awesome!" What I listened to ended up being eight and a half minutes of pure rock opera called "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights." I love singing along to this song, but seldom sing it at karaoke, as it really is meant to be a duet. When it's playing on the radio though, I belt it out, both parts, with no holding back.
I almost thought of skipping this day, or just making up a different topic for this day, but decided in the end that maybe it was a good thing to think of another song that reminds me of my boyfriend (husband). The reason being is that this topic and day 8 (first love) are the same person for me. As I stated in previous blogs, I never really fell in love until I met my husband, so he was my "first love" and would also be considered my "boyfriend." There are actually quite a few songs that remind me of him, so I will pick something a little different for this one.
We both are huge fans of Earth, Wind, and Fire and it was actually one of the only bands that we had in common on our ipods/iphones when we started dating. This is one of their hits titled "Got To Get You Into My Life," which I actually included on the soundtrack when I put our digital wedding album together. It has such a fun, bouncy tune that is infectious from the start. The words really really describe what both of us were feeling before we met:
I was alone, I took a ride I didn't know what I would find there Another road where maybe I Could see another kind of mind there Ooh, then I suddenly see you Ooh, did I tell you I need you Every single day of my life
We both had no idea what we were in for, but here we are four years later continuing this journey that we started back then. I think often we meet the love of our life at the exact moment we need them. My husband and I have talked about this at length, that if we had met at any other time previous in our lives, we would have never lasted. It was all about being in the right place at the right time.
