My heart remembers that song.

*Typepad and I are struggling with formatting today.  If this post ends up either way too small or so large that it's shouting, I apologize.  Some days I am technologically challenged.

Occasionally... once in awhile... ok, pretty much all the time, I become obsessed with a song and I play it over and over until it sticks to me like glue.  It sinks in and  fills up the spaces that were needing that one specific song and once I've soaked it up entirely, I move on to another song.  Then, years later, I hear that song and I am transported back to the time and place when that song and I were first acquainted.

Last week I was somehow reminded of the extraordinary Hal Ketchum (sorry for the wiki link here...his own website is under construction) and spent the week obsessed with "Past the Point of Rescue" and "I Know Where Love Lives".

Today, as I was washing windows, out of nowhere I started to hum "Give Me Wings"  by a special favorite of mine, Michael Johnson and I was flooded by all the memories of what that song meant to me.  It was the late 80s and it was my theme song, my mantra, my battle cry.  I sang it constantly; melody, harmony, it spoke to every part of who I was then.  I was a bird in a cage and man-oh-bloody-man, did I want some wings. I thought there would never be a time in my life that I would not feel the need to conform to the expectations of every one else. Disapproval is a cruel jailer.

I don't know who these women are, but I really like their rendition of the song.

If I remember correctly, the album title was "Wings" and I played the cassette until it died a tangley death.  Each song was sweet and melodic with good harmonies that I could sing easily.  I adored it.  Checking Michael's tour schedule I see that he will be in Duluth at our favorite breakfast place 'Amazing Grace' and in (sigh) Grand Marias at the end of December.  Ah well.  So close and yet so far.

Isn't music a lovely gift?  One song can hold a heart full of memories.  Today, when I could not be more beautifully free, I can still sing that song and find the joy in it.

Comments

[Dana S Whitney]

I have a couple of songs that are like that for me. Sound must hit parts of the brain like scents... transporting one to a particular place/time/ and mind-set. Glad you are liberated now... and that memories of the yearning and work are sweet to you.