It is the first day of the
A-to-Z Blog Challenge of 2016! My theme is The Music of My Life.
My mother took me to a
Neil Diamond concert before I was born. When I was still in her womb, she
discovered that the singer was coming to Johnson City, Tennessee—the next town
over from my small hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. She told me she had hopes
of meeting the man himself and hung out after the performance
(groupie-style) with that end in mind. In actuality, he never showed,
and my mom and her friends ended up hanging out with the roadies instead.
I have always viewed
this backdrop as the introduction to my love of music. All of my life, music
has played a crucial part. Some of my earliest memories are connected with
music—all kinds of music. My tastes have always been varied and eclectic, and
music has played different roles at different stages of my life. There are some artists and
song selections, however, that will always remain ageless.
As Maria sings in The Sound of Music, the beginning is the very best place to start, so I will start
there.
One of my earliest
memories involving music: me standing in front of my grandparents’ fireplace
in their living room, holding a candlestick like a microphone, and belting out
the tune, “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone.
After that,
my mother played music on her stereo turntable and in the 8-track cassette
player in the car. As Mom drove me to preschool in the mornings, I remember
singing along to Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen” from A Star is Born (still one
of my favorite albums of all time).
My mother had every,
single Barbra Streisand album ever sold, and her flawless, powerful voice shaped
my love of powerhouse singing.
A couple of years
later, we were in the car on our way to Jackson Elementary School listening to
Donna Summer’s “On the Radio” and Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana.” Staple tunes of
my childhood.
Although marked by
style and era of music, these are tunes I consider ageless in their capacity to
move me (sometimes with tears, other times with smiles of joyous nostalgia).
But I never tire of listening to them.
What tunes are ageless
for you?
Music can definitely be ageless and can bring back good memories.
ReplyDeleteSean at His and Her Hobbies
Yes, it does!
DeleteI know all these songs so well, LOL, that you featured here. How cute with the memories of your mom and Neil Diamond. His was my first concert I saw when I was 18 years old. I've seen him two times since and he always put on a good show. I can't tell you how many times I saw A Star is Born with Barbra Streisland :)
ReplyDeleteThese all would be considered ageless to me too!
betty
Oh, that's a great factoid about your first concert. How cool is that! I would love to see him in concert!
DeleteGrowing up my parents always had the radio on, but I was only ever exposed to the music of that one local country music station. WMIX 94 Mt Vernon, IL.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know there was other music until my cousin cam to stay with us one summer when I was in jr high. That opened up a whole new world.
Transformed Nonconformist
Brett, country music came a little later for me, but not much. I knew disco and its like first, but within a few years, I was a total country convert!
DeleteThose are great choices! I still remember the songs I grew up hearing my mom listen to. I always thought Delta Dawn was my mom's favorite, but she informed me *I* was the one obsessed with it when I was three or four or so.
ReplyDeleteDelta Dawn! Thank you for reminding me! I loved that song too!
DeleteI'm here as one of Stormy's Sidekicks!
ReplyDeleteMy parents always listened to classic rock when I was growing up, so any time I hear it come on the radio, it takes me back. My son Jude is named after a Beatles song. Music is a large part of our lives.
My husband's middle name is Jude, and he's a huge Beatles fan, but I think he was named after the saint. I'm a huge classic rock fan too.
DeleteYou wouldn't happen to be related to drummer Jim Keltner?
DeleteI love all of your selections Megan. I must have gone to see A Star is Born at lest 5 times when it was first released. I was pretty sure that Kris Kristofferson and I were meant to be together. Other favorite "musical" from that time period were Fame, All That Jazz and Saturday Night Fever. Even so, the only band that I will ever love truly, madly and deeply is The Beatles. The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Laura Nero, Cat Stevens...they were my coming of age bands. Sorry, didn't mean to prattle on.
ReplyDeleteI love it! My husband is a huge Beatles fan. I'll probably post something about it in a later blog post, but when we were in England a couple of years ago, we went to Liverpool specifically to do the Magical Mystery tour. I wasn't necessarily a fan before that, but I became one after!
DeleteI agree music is ageless! I love all your choices! Although, I'm not sure i could come up with such a list, well, maybe if I set my mind to it. LOL While I love music but it's my husband who knows all the trivia and can name a song or band only on the slightest music.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog.
Thank you for posting for the A to Z!
Ninga Minion @YolandaRenee from
Defending The Pen
Parallels
Murderous Imaginings
Thank you for stopping by, Yolanda! Music trivia (especially those you guess with the first few strains) is always fun!
DeleteHappy A Day!
ReplyDeleteAgeless songs... "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers
Thanks for stopping by! :)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting to hear about your childhood and what songs are tied to those memories.
ReplyDeleteThe first song that ever struck me was a hypnotic blues tune by Canned Heat called On The Road Again. My parents had returned form shopping and brought home an assortment of cassette tapes and a tape player. This was the first song I heard out of those tapes and I was hooked on music ever since.
This song reminds me of when I was a preschooler. I would get up early in the morning and find my dad at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. I was big into dinosaurs at this time and one morning my dad decided to draw a brontosaurus of mine. He put it in a scene with mountains, a lake and trees. He drew it so life like and I remember being amazed that you could draw what you see and have it look so realistically.
It was also during this time that I developed my desire to become an artist.
So much of who we are and what we love is shaped as young children. As the Bible says, train a child up in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
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