Music is great for the memory. It is a wonderful tool that allows the listener to travel back in time. Each note can trigger a range of emotions based on past experiences, and for many of us these experiences are good.
Many of us have a certain song that takes us back to our younger days. The friends we maybe drove around town with on a Saturday night as teens, or what was playing on the radio during a make-out session. They use the term “old school” for songs from our younger years that at the time were on the top of the charts, but now are nothing more then musical memories from years past.
One song that ranks from my past is a little gem called “Celebrate” by a random songwriter I never got the name of. I think this was maybe 8th grade and I was in an afternoon group called the Beasley Singers. Think “Glee” but with middle school kids, not-as-cool sounding show tunes, and horrible looking bowties. For the group though it was the best thing in town, and for me one of the most fun experiences of my life. Aside from the ticket to Disney World each summer it was a chance to stand on stage and perform.
For our show choir though sadly though not every show was in front of hundreds of random tourist or even dozens of parents. Instead we sometimes had to perform for anyone who could get out of our classes for a few hours. I think this day was a senior citizen’s group, since I can’t remember the exact day. It was at the beginning of our practiced song and dance at that we started our number to the pre-recorded background music. I mean there was a teacher who used a piano to teach us what notes to sing, but she needed to be able to stand off to the side and remind us to smile.
“Celebrate…It’s a celebration….celebrate…something, something nation…something, something celebrate….cele-blackout!”
Yeah so to make the long story short the lights go out right at the start of the performance. All electronics were gone, including the backing music. I think it took the group a good minute or so to actually stop singing. I think we sounded damn good without it. Too bad there were not smart phones in every hand back then because I doubt if there is video of the show.
Since Youtube has a limited library, we will go with “I Just Want to Celebrate” by Rare Earth as our song of the day that reminds me on an event….
Prince song of the day that reminds me of an event will be “Thunder” and takes me back to a drive with my family to New Jersey. We were taking my old Ford Explorer overnight trying to beat a hurricane. My truck had a tape deck with maybe three working tapes and a non-working gas gauge. Now since I had to work a full eight before leaving for the 20 hour drive, I wasn’t happy about any of this. One tape was Bob Marley, which I will discuss later. Another was some kickass house my buddy DJ Kro mixed up. I still have the tape somewhere actually for when I need a good trip back and find a working tape player. Anyway somewhere between beats and “Scarface” movie quotes they were not feeling it. This was the only thing we could settle on.
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