The music in my life

For a very long time in my life I knew every song on the charts. I could name the songs, the singers and their bands and most of the time I knew the lyrics. From about 8 years old music meant the world to me.


When I was about 8 or 9 I would go into the barn on our property and, skipping rope in hand, with the handle as a microphone, I would sing “Hey There Georgie Girl” and “Where Have all the Flowers Gone”. I rapidly progressed to the Monkees and even perfected the Monkee walk.

At around 11, I was riding my bike singing “American Pie” at the top of my lungs. I still know nearly all the words.

As I grew older, I became fixated on “Stairway to Heaven” playing it over and over and over again. It’s a wonder the tape never broke. For a few years I loved Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heap. Led Zepp’s “Laguna Sunrise” still reminds me of playing pool at my friend’s house with the rays of sunset streaming in through the tinted windows of her rumpus room.

Later on I revisited Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell and Marianne Faithful. I loved and still love strong female singers and their lyrics. Faithful’s album “Broken English” is always a favourite of mine.

In the last year of high school I couldn’t get enough of Queen. I remember going to one of their concerts with a couple of my friends. After the concert we hatched a plan to see them at their hotel. We somehow picked the right hotel in the city and managed to get past the doorman. He assumed we were there with our father! We even got to the right floor of the hotel and, with our naïve confidence, began knocking on doors. Imagine my surprise when my girlfriend knocked on the right door and Freddy Mercury answered! Imagine my dismay when she stuttered “oh, sorry, wrong door” and moved away! I still can’t believe she did that. I’ve seen Queen twice in my life and I’m sure they were the best group I’ve ever seen live. Not that I’ve seen many concerts, but two memorable ones were Meatloaf and Dr Hook.

By the time I’d left school, Meatloaf songs started to mean a lot to me, as well as Ol ’55 and Dr Hook. There was a song for every important moment of my life. I lost my virginity to Dr Hook’s “A Couple More Years”, I danced with a lover to Joe Cocker’s “You are so Beautiful”, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” was very special to me and still is, as it reminds me of one of my more memorable boyfriends.

Then I discovered disco (somehow I fitted into a pair of Grease pants - remember them?) and RnB and gospel and rap and the whole range of “black” music, which I still love.

For the last six years I’ve lost touch with the whole music scene. But the other day, as my youngest son played his guitar and I sang along, my love of music came back to me and engulfed me like a huge sound wave. I now play the video hits on TV every time I can and I went out and bought JayZ’s album, The Blueprint 3 as I love the remixed version of Forever Young. I’m back in the groove and I don’t ever want to be left behind musically again!