Music is a big part of who I am. In many regards its an even bigger part of who I was. There are songs and records that are mental time capsules. Each capsule bursts with a recollection of days gone by. As I reminisce, I find a deeper meaning. Music marks where I was and how things were in a specific moment in time. It all starts with my childhood.
My earliest recollections are songs I heard people sing around the house. I remember my mom singing, “Que Sera Sera“. I didn’t even know what the title meant. Was it a Yugoslavian folk song? Was Mom making it all up? The lyric, “Whatever will be, will be/The future’s not ours to see” was quite possibly the first advice I remember my Mom ever giving me. The funny thing is, she wasn’t even trying. She probably has no idea how those words have stuck with me all these years. I don’t care if Doris Day made it famous. It will always be Mom’s song.
Pop’s Songs
Pops had his own songs too. I remember many rounds of “Row Row Row Your Boat“. There was one song that still brings out the kid in me when I hear it. My folks didn’t really give us set bed times. We pretty much fell asleep on our own. Sometimes I fell asleep in the living room while we were all watching tv or hanging out. Pops would sing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” as he carried me to my room. I pretended I was sound asleep so he could finish the song (or at least sing it as far as he could remember the lyrics). He usually played up a big deep voice while he sang.
Dishes with Honey
My paternal grandmother, Honey, used to sing, “Easter Parade” while she was puttering around her kitchen hand washing the dishes or washing clothes. She had this rolling washing machine that she moved from underneath the telephone to the kitchen sink when it was time for laundry. She had to hook up the machine to the faucet. That washer was a noisy little beast. I could still hear her humming along over that loud washer ruckus.
My parents enjoyed listening to music. They weren’t hardcore fans of any particular artist or genre. My folks weren’t involved in the beatnik scene or the peace, love and dope counter culture that was en vogue during their young adult years. They never caught “Beatlemania” in their youth. I’m sure they liked the Beatles but they weren’t studying albums covers hoping to find all the clues to see if Paul was dead. They liked a variety of artists. They enjoyed many different styles.
The Magic Box
When I was young family record night was quite an event. Pops kept a cardboard box up in the hallway closet. He had several albums and tons of 45rpm singles stored in it. Whenever brought out that magic box of records all of us would sit in the living room picking out the ones we wanted to hear.
I remember he had a couple of yellow label singles from Sun Records. Those weren’t the ones that caught my ear. The records my sister and I used to select were more off the beaten path. We werer more inclined to request “Daddy Cool” by the Rays or “Me Japanese Boy I Love You” by Bobby Goldsboro.
We always requested the Buchanan/Goodman novelty, “The Flying Saucer ” featuring the ever in control, “John Cameron Cameron downtown.” Mr. Cameron Cameron kept us updated on the latest happenings live from the alien landing zone. The magic record box is where I heard many of the giants, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Kingston Trio and the ever timeless song “Coconut” from Harry Nilsson.
8-TrackTapes
My parents also had a collection 8-track tapes. The tapes were kept in a brown faux leatherish carrying case. It had a handle and two sides that unbuckled from the top. I frequently opened that case just to stare at the tapes. I rearranged them. I studied the graphics. One of Mom’s favorite tapes was the compilation tape, “Cruisin 1963”.It had a great looking comic style illustration. There was a blonde girl crying in the picture. “It’s My Party” by Leslie Gore must have been Mom’s favorite track . She sang along with that track many times.
That 8-track tape collection was where I heard Charlie Pride, Sammy Davis Jr., Willie Nelson, John Denver, B.J. Thomas, Simon and Garfunkel, Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Jim Nabors, (yes I said Jim Nabors). Mom made it pretty clear that Bob Dylan wasn’t something she cared to hear. That’s when I decided to give Bob a chance. Come to think of it , Mom wasn’t too keen on riding the Jim Nabors bandwagon either. Everything is beautiful in its own way.
Diggy Liggy Head Smash
Thanks to our brown Montgomery Ward’s tape player, we had the ability to listen to music in the living room without having to get up to change a single or turn over a record. Well in theory we didn’t have to get up as often. It didn’t take long for a new chore to emerge. If the tape started wavering, somebody had to wedge a folded up a stack of paper and cardboard under the cartridge to get the tape back inline with the tape heads.
One evening I got a chair upside the head because of the ragin’ Cajun fiddle player Doug Kershaw. Mr.”Diggy Liggy Lo” started wobbling in the player. Pops was sitting in a big barstool. Barstools were quite common and quite heavy in the 70s. I was standing behind him hanging on the edge of it. He didn’t know I was there. He got up to go shove some more paper in the player and the next thing I know I’m flying backwards and then the barstool hit my head after I hit the ground. It probably freaked Pops out more than me. Kids are stealthy little critters. I was no different. Diggy liggy that sucked.
Bagpipes and Diamond
There were many times when robust sounds of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards bagpipes and drums would rattle those brown mesh speakers. I think that tape is the only time I ever remember Pops playing anything too loud. He laid into the volume slider whenever he was ready to get swept away by the majesty of the Scottish bagpipes. I’m pretty sure the bagpipes got louder as the Falstaff got emptier.
I used to hear a lot of Neil Diamond while traveling in the car with Pops. He had Diamond’s “Moods” ,”Hot August Night” and a greatest hits tape that had a dark blue case. My favorite tracks were “Sung Sung Blue”, “Porcupine Pie”, “Gitchy Goomy” and “Crunchy Granola Suite” . I still sing “Porcupine Pie” to myself because I think the terms,”vanilla soup”,” fruity blue cheese” and“chicken ripple ice cream”,are some of the greatest words ever put to music. I used to sing Neil’s, ” Soolaimon” for my parents. “Soolaimon” is such a fun word to say. That reminds me. I have to go find my Neil Diamond shirt.
Travolta Tunes
The “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack emerged as a hit filled source of ear candy. Pops was genuinely bad at remembering lyrics. “More than a Woman” will forever be referred to as “Bald Headed Woman” in my family circle. You never knew when Pops was butchering a song on purpose or by accident. I have taken what my dad started and perfected it to a new level in my household. I go so over the top with changing lyrics and mixing words from similar melodies that my family has a tendency to forget the real lyrics. Here is one that I have totally screwed up for them.
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine/You make me happy when skies are gray.
You’ll never know dear/how much I love you
This land was made for you and me”
Thank you Pops for the inspiration. Your legacy will always live on.
The Next Wave
My folks eventually started buying a ton of 45 rpm singles from the newer artists of the day. Their collection grew with contemporary hits such as Alan O’Day’s , “Undercover Angel” , “Angel In Your Arms ” by Hot, “Blue Bayou” by Linda Ronstadt. Mom kept us in laughing as she started acquiring several novelty songs such as , “Shut Uppa You Face” by Joe Dolce , “Telephone Man” by Meri Wilson and Steve Martin’s “King Tut”.
We also started picking up some soundtrack singles, The theme songs from Rocky and Star Wars would serve as the music for several of my free form kata routines. Nothing mixes better with karate maneuvers than songs inspired by boxing underdogs and the Force.
Luv Ya Sports
Sports crazed theme songs were also quite big at the time. The whole town of Houston, Texas was caught up in the rowdy beer drinking, blue collar, hard hitting bunch of characters on the Bum Phillips coached Houston Oilers. My home was not immune from the fandemonium.
There were so many songs. “Houston Oiler Fight Song” and “Luv Ya Blue” were the big two. The Oilers were so popular that some of their own players released songs. Wide receiver Kenny Burrough released the disco ditty “Super Bowl Itch“. Center Carl Mauck slurred his way through his tribute to running back Earl Campbell and other team members with, “The Oiler Cannonball“. The 70s were a much simpler time. Mauck’s lyric, “The fancy passin’ Dago” referred to quarterback Dan Pastorini. Dan was one of the ring leaders of the Oiler circus. He was also someone who chuckled, laughed and had a great sense of humor. In the modern era controversy would’ve surrounded the world with internet keyboard pounding outrage.
Our Houston Astros baseball team even had a song called, “Houston’s Gone Banastros“. I think it is safe to say the well had run dry. It was time for sports music to leave Space City. Banastros was just a reach. I’m laughing as I say the word “Banastros” in my head.
Unifying Music Memories
The household singing, the magic box and 8-track tape collection opened my ears to music. It started me on my musical journey. In a bigger sense, the music reminds me of a time when we were all on the same page. Maybe we really were. Maybe we really weren’t.
Somewhere along the way we went in our own directions. This was true not just in music, but in family life in general. It’s just the way things progress. It becomes less about us learning what our parents like and more about about doing our own thing.
Now that I am raising my own family, I understand how quickly things can change. There are less times when everyone is moving in the same direction. There are more things that pull everyone away from the family center. Hopefully my children will have some fond recollections of the simpler times of unity and togetherness. Who knows, maybe they’ll even have a brain page they can mark with a song or two.
The best way to partake in the unifying force of music is by sharing what inspires you- Cranial Circus
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