Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Favorite Songs

WOW......  I started thinking about this one at the beginning of it being posted, and the more I thought, the more songs I felt as though I had to include..... You see, I love music.  Used to love playing music.  Ok, still do, but not as much.  Love it that my daughter is a musician/songwriter (http://hubbellwoodstudios.wix.com/gracehubbell#!music/ck0q).  And do we love the music we love because of our past or what we hope for our future.

My first song I remember learning was "the Battle of New Orleans".  I was probably around 3.  I still remember most of the lyrics.

"we fired our guns till the barrel melted down, then we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round, we filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind, and when we touched the powder off, the gater lost his mind".....wow, what a song.....

There are songs I love because they remind me of where I have been and who I no longer am:

"I guess I'll go out to the edge of the earth
But don't you come looking for me until you hear these words 
'cause out on the edge, see the long way down, 
Baby I'm thinking 'bout jumping 'cause it's easier then turning around 
I've been too long locked in shackles and chains 
Too long lost in the driving rain" - Darden Smith



"She wants to run away, But there's nowhere that she can go
Nowhere the pain won't come again, But she can hide, hide in the pouring rain
She rides the eye of the hurricane" - David Wilcox

Or crazy parts of our life like the time I was asked to play for the first Martin Luther King Day Celebration while I was in the military.....I played a 60's peace song (Blowing in the Wind) without a second thought.  It didn't go over well.

There is music I love because the artists were so much a part of my life, like Dan Fogelberg whose life was cut short by cancer.  Who else could write such a magnificent song like "To the Morning" - "watching the sun, watching it come up over the rooftop, cloudy and warm, maybe a storm, you can never quite tell from the morning"

Or James Taylor, whose music has followed me all my days with never a bad song (except maybe candy man). 

Lyrics from some musicians are never far from my heart because of their meaning.  I want to help change the world and music could be the way:

"I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people leading ordinary lives
Filled with love, forgiveness, compassion and sacrifice" - Tracy Chapman

"It's a hard life, it's a hard life it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all that they'll know" - Nanci Griffith



"Was he thinkin' about my country, or the color of my skin?
Was he thinkin' 'bout my religion, and the way I worshipped him?
Did he create just me in his image, or every living thing?
When God made me, when God made me" - Neil Young

There are songs that make me feel good:

"When I grow up a want to be a tree, I want to make my home with the birds and bees" - John Gorka 
"If all my luck ran out tomorrow, I would say that I have had my share...... all the rest is just like gravy on the table, I will pour and pass as long as I am able" - John Gorka
(note....Gorka has some of the most clever lyrics I have ever heard.....  I love all his songs...if you like well written lyrics, definitely look him up.)

Or, 
"Cause I'm the son of a 3rd generation farmer, I've been married 10 years to the farmer's daughter
I got 2 boys in the county 4-H, I'm a lifetime sponsor of the FFA
Hey that's what I make, I make a lot of Hay for a little pay, and I'm proud to say
I'm a God fearing hardworking combine driver, Hogging up the road on my p-p-p-p-plower
Chug-a-lug-a-lugin 5 miles an hour, On my International Harvester." -  Craig Morgan
(note....having grown up in farm country, this makes me smile every time I hear it)







And the ones that make us cry.  I remember having to pull over on the side of the road and cry when I first heard this song:

"Saints preserve us, Wherever we might fall
This is all too big a mystery
I remember I was standing in the corner of the room
Saying "Look at how she's leaving us, So quietly so soon" " - Marc Cohen

I also love songs about farming and about how the lives of farmers are changing and how hard that life sometimes is:

"Some people pray for victory, Some people pray for peace
Some people pray for extra time, Some pray for sweet release
Some pray for health and happiness, For riches and renown
But none of this will matter much, If the waters don't come down" -  Don Henley

Or 

"There's houses in the fields, No prayers for steady rain this year
Houses in the fields, There's houses in the fields
And the last few farms are growing out of here" -  John Gorka


Lately, I have been listening to a local radio station that plays a very eclectic mix.....and I heard a  new to me artist.  Tim Chauvin.  I bought his CD, he is an independent artist, and really liked all his songs:

"and you will wake up every morning, to a life you know so well, 
to the hope in every row depending on yourself.
Farming's in your blood, like your dad and his dad, too.
And just as they did, you know, you'll just make do"

And I found a new to me Jackson Browne CD, that spoke to me and to my times RIGHT NOW, even though it was written almost 30 years ago:

".....And I ain't no communist, And I ain't no capitalist
And I ain't no socialist, And I ain't no imperialist
And I ain't no democrat, And I sure ain't no republican
I only know one party, And it is freedom" 


So, I couldn't ever pick a favorite song...or even  five.....no more than I can pick a favorite flower.

















And now, lets see what the others in our group have written:
Andes Cruz: https://andescruz.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/sing-with-me-april-blog-o-sphere-think-tank/
Robyn Hawk




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