Music has always been a huge part of my life. From listening to my dad and my Uncle Harry singing old hymns country-style and playing their guitars, to hearing the choir sing every Sunday in church, I developed my love for music early on and even sang publicly for many years of my life.
I remember being in 5th or 6th grade in school and The Monkees were coming to town. As an adolescent girl I wanted sooooooooooo bad to go to their concert, but my mom wouldn’t let me. Everything was so dramatic at that age, and I remember being mad at her for a long time. But for some reason when I was in 8th grade, she decided to take me, my best friend, Lana, and my grandmother to see Tom Jones. (I guess I got to go because she wanted to see Tom herself! He is much more appealing to a 30-something woman than The Monkees would be.)
It was much more difficult to take pictures or record part of a concert in those days because smart phones weren’t invented yet. So, I took my handy cassette recorder, made sure the battery was charged, and stuffed it into my oversized purse. We sat in the last row, but I was still so excited – THIS WAS MY FIRST CONCERT!
A comedian by the name of Norm Crosby and Gladys Knight & The Pips were the opening acts. But then Tom Jones came out with that black, shiny suit he used to wear on his T.V. show, and those tight pants, singing “It’s Not Unusual” and doing those gyrations that no 13-year-old girl who is just discovering boys should see. We were so far from the stage, and the sound from the plug-in microphone I was holding didn’t reproduce the best audio, but every so often you could hear Tom’s voice coming through when I played back the tape. Mostly, you could just hear Lana and I screaming.
I joked about my mom taking me to the concert because it was SHE who really wanted to see Tom Jones. But I think maybe she felt bad for not letting me go to The Monkees concert, and this was her way of making up for it. This was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with music.
It actually started long before that first concert, when I would stand in front of the mirror singing into a hairbrush. (But none of you did that, right?) It graduated into singing for the biannual school musicals in grade school, to singing in church choirs and on vocal teams, singing for weddings, funerals, women’s’ retreats, and doing family theater with my son. I even ended up making a demo tape after working with several vocal coaches. It’s so much a part of me that I can’t imagine how those who have lost their hearing never get to hear the beautiful melodies of a song.
Music is everywhere. Think of a movie soundtrack. If you watched a movie without the background music playing, you’d probably fall asleep. Music is used in media to invoke an emotional response. So many of our memories are connected to music. How many times has it happened? You’re driving along in your car and a song comes on the radio. You immediately think of a person, a place, or a circumstance in your life that takes you back to the first time you heard it or connect it to a joyful or sad event. Music connects us to relationships. Even as I sit here writing this, I have music playing in the background. I don’t mind silence; but I love music!
What music are you listening to right now?
