Throwback Thursday from February 2016
Throwback Thursday from February 2016
What’s In A Song?
A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO my wife, the lovely and thought provoking, Dawn, posted a question on Facebook that made a lot of people stop and think.
She asked for, “Songs / musical pieces that bring you to tears or grab you and won’t let go.”
That was not as easy a request as I first thought.
I am a music lover. My tastes range through just about every genre that you can think of. What I have playing in the car could make you scratch your head. I have Hard Rock, Opera, Country, Oldies, Jimmy Buffett, Broadway, Blues, Pop, Classical, Jazz, and even a Folk number or two. I usually have it going in a Random Mode, but if one song or artist hits a nerve I slide into Repeat Mode.
Dawn’s Facebook posting has elicited a good response. After just a few hours she had more 
than thirty replies. The music chosen came from Classical, Broadway, Pop music, Folk – and I didn’t see any two people pick the same thing. The choices were as different as the people.
How could it be otherwise?
What makes a certain song strike a responsive chord in someone is, I think, beyond objective analysis. The choices are colored by an endless string of memories, experiences, hopes, dreams, fears, tragedies and triumphs. No two people have the same combination of factors that have led them to pick one song over another. What stirs the heart of one person leaves another person cold. One song is not “better” than any other for purposes of this request just different – much like the people.
When I read Dawn’s request I had to run through quite a playlist to find something appropriate to add to the list. I can’t think of any particular song that moves me to tears, but “Grabs me” – that I could find. What time is it? What is the weather? How bad are my feet hurting? There are a number of factors involved in my “Grabability” at any given time.
After several days of thinking, choosing and then changing my mind, I finally settled on just one song that seems to work its way into my psyche no matter what my mood or condition. 
My pick was a song by an Irish singer named Mary Black. Her voice cuts through to me and her song, “Columbus,” hits home. Maybe it’s the gypsy in me with my eternal wanderlust. I really don’t know for sure.
I’ve included a link to YouTube with her performing the song.
I’d be curious to hear back from you about “Columbus.” I may be a fan club with one member. And that’s OK by me.
“Songs / musical pieces that bring your to tears or grab you and won’t let go.”
How would you answer this?
Mary Black – “Columbus”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKW5ZUjK2xc
Down the Hall on Your Left 
Music is as complex to explain to explain why it grips our emotions as art is. I love a wide variety of music (and art). Why is that? The mystery of our hearts is an open question. Great post, John.
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Music and Art one day and Taco Bell the next. Culture. ..I love it.
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Exactly! Couldn’t have said it better.
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