Thank You for the Music

 Music can be an interesting part of our personal history and our family history. Some families were singers, dancers and musicians. I suspect that most of us could be described in those terms, at least during certain parts of our lives. And most of us can easily think of some songs that are still favorites.

Looking back to my childhood, I remember us moving into a home that had a wind-up phonograph standing in a place of honor in the living room. It had a few 78 RPM records that we children listened to repeatedly, perhaps driving our poor parents to distraction. The songs were mostly the sad songs that were popular in the 1940s. I remember that these "tear-jerkers" included The Letter Edged in Black (informing the singer of his mother's death), The Baggage Coach Ahead (containing the singer's wife's dead body), The Mississippi Flood (a devastating loss of life and property), and other depressing themes. But they were the style of the time, and I can still remember some of the words.

For a time I attended the Sunday School of a Swedish evangelical church, and I sort of remember a Swedish song we learned. Memory is an amazing thing!

As a teenager, I lived through the transition from ballads to rock music, and some of these became favorites, including Elvis and The Beetles. And if I ever hear Primrose Lane or Mack the Knife, I immediately remember lying under my 1948 Plymouth, trying once again to fix the motor ... while listening to these songs.

Later, I served for 2 years in France and 6 months in Switzerland. Even, now when I hear the tunes of certain hymns, the words going through my head are the French words that were so familiar to me over 50 years ago. 

Recently, on Youtube I came across some songs by ABBA, one of my favorite groups, I especially liked their songs that reflected on life. As a parent, Slipping Through My Fingers can still bring a tear to my eye, much more readily than the old "tear-jerkers" ever could. Maybe it is because I am older now and I can relate better to the message of the song. To ABBA and all the others, I say Thank You for the Music. 

It is part of my life, and probably part of your life as well. Why not include it, along with other favorite things as part of the story of life?