If ...

you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life,
what would it be….and why?

On this morning after the Jordan Davis trial ended with a hung jury on the count of murder, I'm tempted to listen to rap or hip-hop music – LOUD – for the rest of my life.

I can't do that. I'm a fan, but I'm not A FAN, if you know what I mean. I like old-school hip-hop – Ton Loc, Outkast, DJ Jazzy Jeff. Although … Pharrell.

If I had to pick just one song, it would be the old Johnny Mercer tune "I Remember You." It's been covered by Ella and Frank Ifield and Tony Bennett and Slim Whitman and Art Garfunkel and, and, and. It's a beautiful song and I never get tired of listening to it.

Now as both of you know, I"m a Bob Dylan fan through and through. And while Bob didn't cover the Mercer tune, he did come up with his own lyrics and music using the same title. And it happens to be from one of my two favorite albums, both of which were rather obscure releases from the '80s. Dylan's "I Remember You" is from Empire Burlesque. My other fave CD is called Knocked Out Loaded.

If I were picking a favorite Dylan tune to listen to for the rest of my life, it would most definitely be "Forever Young." If you're new here, you might not know my maiden name is Young. The last time I was single I vowed that if I ever married I'd keep my maiden name the rest of my life.

Obviously when I took my vows I'd changed my mind. Heh.

I love that song not just because he wrote it for me (he DID! Totally!), but for the incredibly warm and inspiring lyrics. 

              May your heart always be joyful
              May your song always be sung
              May you stay forever young.

I've been feeling pretty low this past few days weeks months winter. I've had some good days, but mostly I've been grey and blue and dull and cold and blah. Our electricity went out last night – the icing on the cake, if you will – right about the time I was turning the oven on to warm up left over meat loaf for dinner.

So my husband and I ate cold meat loaf and homemade applesauce, after which we retired to the TV room with oil lamps, the better to read and knit by. That's the smallest room in the house and we were surprised at how much warmth two little oil lamps could produce. The lights came back on about four hours later; we really didn't suffer at all. And I finished the neverending socks!

During that time we listened to music from my iPod, which I keep docked on a charger/speaker that will play for a couple of hours without external power. And I started feeling …

better.

Amazingly, surprisingly, astonishingly better. It wasn't a particular genre or artist; I had the iPod on shuffle. But the nicest tunes popped up – Simon and Garfunkel, Mariah Carey, Dylan – of course, since there are more songs on the device by Dylan than by any other artist. Soothing and restful and pleasant tunes. The last song we listened to, as the lights came on, was "Church in the Wildwood" by The Gaithers, which happened to be the song my dad came out of a coma singing along with back in 2008. It also was my husband's grandfather's favorite song.

I felt like the universe knew what I needed to hear.

And since the weather forecast is for a warming trend, maybe the universe knows what I need in that department, as well.


I hope your Sunday is soothing and restful and pleasant. Selfishly, I hope mine is, as well.