listen to the music

 When I was a teenager listening to records, yes that what we called them in the old days, I listened to the music. I wasn't really aware of it at the time but the lyrics were in the background. That only became apparent to me yesterday after posting a flippant comment of a Facebook post. I posted. " I just stopped in to see what condition my condition was in. " I knew it as an old song lyric but didn't recall another word of the song besides, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah was used a lot in song lyrics back in the sixties. So I did what is fast becoming a habit, I googled it. Turns out it was Kenny Rogers and the first edition. Okay, I sorta remember that but google began to explain what the lyrics meant. They said it was a counterculture song about sniffing glue! OMG, Kenny Rogers was sniffing glue? I didn't know that. That's when I realized I wasn't listening. I seem to recall being in English class and the assignment was to explain the meaning of a song. I think someone did Lucy in the Sky with diamonds. I'm still not sure what the heck that is supposed to mean. Anyway, when I was a teenager, they were just songs. I remember one eyed purple people eater, Little Red Riding Hood, Whooly Bully, Get up, Get Down, Magic Carpet Ride, Patches and so many more. I certainly wasn't listening to only one genre. If it was on the radio, I listened. Buying the record was reserved only for the best ones. A 45 cost ninety five cents! I don't recall what I paid for albums, didn't buy many of those. 

 No, when I was a teenager I wasn't thinking about what the song meant. Maybe that's why I think so much about stuff today. Back then, I was just listening to the music and an occasional lyric would jump out at me. Usually just a few lines or so. Could be that is also why I wasn't much of a counter-culturist. I wasn't listening to that nonsense. Now some of the music I liked was a bit radical, at least to my parents it was, so I was thought of as a rebel. Like James Dean I didn't have a cause however. I just enjoyed the music. I did listen to a wide range of music. Everything from Hank Williams to James Brown. I still do to this day. Well I admit I don't listen to Punk rock or Rap. Not a fan of any of that. Fact is I'm waiting, someday maybe someone will get around to making good music once again. From what little I hear it ain't happening yet! 

 I did start listening to the lyrics later on in life. Mostly the lyrics to country songs as they speak directly. I do enjoy plain talk. All that cryptic stuff is distracting. Say what you mean, plainly. When George Jones sings he stopped lovin' her today, who know exactly what he's singin' about. I suppose that is why I gravitated toward what they call country music these days. Not only can you understand the lyrics, you can understand the lyrics, know what I mean? But now even that has become somewhat garbled with these " urban cowboys " for lack of a better term. I'm sorry you just can't rap a country song! I'm sorry, but a white dude in faded jeans and cowboy boots, no matter how many tattoos he or she has, aren't black artists! So, quit it, just quit. But I'm wandering off topic a bit, as usual.

 I've heard it said that music is the background to our lives. For me I would say it is more accurate to say the lyrics are. Like the majority of us I can recall lyrics, or at the very least portions of them, from sixty years ago. Those lyrics are there. Sometime the lyrics aren't in context because I wasn't listening to the message or didn't decipher the message the lyrists was trying to convey. Still the lyric is there and remains for some reason. I believe that. I have no explanation for that, but surely old song lyrics, like nursery rhymes, are imbedded in our mind and it must be for a reason. We do pick and chose from them however according to the occasion. Are we being silly or thoughtful? We will select a lyric to fit what we perceive the occasion to warrant. Sometimes they don't fit. For instance when I wrote, I just stopped in to see what condition my condition was in, I wasn't thinking about snorting glue! I just remembered that as a catchy lyric. Now I'm wondering what else I missed back then. Well judging by the way some of my contemporaries think and act I'm guessing it wasn't much of importance. Many seem to still be trying to figure it out, when all you really have to do is, enjoy the music. And now I'm thinking of, Dance to the Music, Sly and the family stone. Play the song and I can recall most of the lyrics. Without the music however, the lyrics are hazy. Purple Haze? I could go on and on.