Though it's been awhile since I've written an essay, I've decided that i'm going to write about something a bit different; the meanings of music. This is something that's been on my mind for some time, after listening to a number of older songs that I don't have available to play on my CD stereo, but have been listening to on youtube Although it's taken me quite a while to recognize the meaning of certain songs, especially favorites of mine, I can appreciate them even more. Some songs are just fun and fantasy, some of which revolves the affects of recreationl drugs, others are about life in the fast lane, and the fact that life, while it goes on, can be snuffed out in a whim by Mother Nature or other forces, while still others are about love that's flourishing, distant, gone wrong, or on the verge of going wrong.

There’s music and there’s music. I started out being a big fan of classical music as a preteen, most notably Mozart’s Symphony No. #41, and Brahm’s First Symphony, both of which I’d listen to over and over again, whenever I had the opportunity. Another favorite record of mine was The Red Army, which were a whole bunch of sad songs, sung in Russian, which I’ve never understood, but I loved the tunes and voices nonetheless, while failing to understand the meaning of the songs. That record, too, was another record that I’d play over and over again. When my mom and I would drive somewhere, I’d always want her to put on the car radio, so that I could listen to the classical music coming over the radio.

Another record, called Absolute Nonesense by Oscar Brand, was another favorite of mine, which I brought to school one day and played it for my third-grade class, invoking many laughs from my classmates.

My dad was always a big fan of jazz, especially Dixieland, as well as the likes of Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman, which he’d put on full blast on Sunday mornings. Since I never liked jazz, that was something that I could never, ever get into.

Then came the late 1950’s and the early to mid 1960’s, when the rock-n-roll scene began to grip the country. The first rock-n-roll music I heard was back in the summer of 1962, when I attended day camp out west for six weeks. The Four Season’s Big Girls Don’t Cry, and the song Davy Crocket, Johnny get Angry, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, all of which I found moving, were among my introductions to rock-n-roll.

In 1963, folk singers such as Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Coillins, along with Pete Seeger and the Weavers were also on the general music scene, although the Weavers were a favorite thing to listen to in our household even before the other afore-mentioned folksingers came along. Since the early to mid 1960’s also issued in the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement, much of the folk music back then also had special meaning. Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind also had an intense meaning--it was about the civil rights movement, which meant “The answer is coming”. I ‘ve always loved Peter, Paul & Mary’s rendition of that song, and still do, and yet I love Bob Dylan's original rendition of it just as much.

The song “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd, which was sun by the folk music group, the Weavers, also had a special meaning, as it was about the AFrican slaves who were attempting to escape to the North for freedom via Underground railroad. This particular song tells a story about how slaves traveled by night en route North, and the Drinking Gourd was the Big Dipper. The phrase “for the old man is awaitin' for the carry you to freedom”, meant the North Star, which was at top of the Big Dipper, or the drinking gourd, as it was slangily called. It was a fitting name-- necessary for protection for the escaping slaves from torture by sadistic Southern white plantation masters, who, fortunately for the escaping slaves, were not aware of what they were singing. Although I was still too young to really understand the meaning of much of this music when it was first out, I became more aware of it when I became much older.

Fast forward to the spring of 1964, when my sister and I were visiting relatives who then resided in a neighborning town from the one we were growing up in. The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show, and, despite my skepticism as a young seventh-grader, I watched the Beatles along with everybody else, and was charmed and impressed by the music. The Beatles were in vogue during those years, and everybody had Beatles Albums, wrote “The Beatles” on notebooks and clipboards, and sang their songs on the buses to and from school every day. Despite warnings by my mom that the Beatles would corrupt my taste in music, I listened to the Beatles and other rock-n-roll anyway.

For a time, she may have been right, but when I was well into adulthood, I began to understand the meaning of songs and to expand my tastes a bit more. There were even Beatles cards, Beatles wallpaper, and Beatle sneakers, but my younger sister created her own on a pair of white sneakers. Beatlemania continued throughout the mid-1960’s, although other rock groups, such as Herman’s Hermits, Dave Clark Five, and many other rock groups began to edge their way in. Elvis Presley, long a big 1950’s icon for teens during that period, began to evolve with a new style during the late-1960's rock-n-roll era. With the late 1960’s came more psychedelic music, often, though not always, related to LSD trips and experimenting with other drugs, and the Flower Child period. Scott McKenzie’s famous song San Francisco was a good example of what was beginning, and was clearly about the Summer of Love in San Francisco’s Height-Ashbury section in 1967.

Aretha Franklin also came into prominence with her song, Respect, which demanded, as the song points out..Respect. Less than a year later,Since You've Been Gone, Chain of Fools and afew others, also emerged. The Seeker’s Georgy Girl, the theme song from the movie, was about an ugly, gawky-looking girl who is constantly excluded from parties and datings, while her beautiful-looking roomate is always partying, dating and having an active social life. Later, Georgie’s turn to bloom comes, after she shyly and slowly makes changes in her dress and appearance.

The Beach Boys were also cool--and, like much other music, I loved listening to it, and never really analyzed the meaning or message of songs that I listened to. I just loved the tempo, the tunes,and enjoyed listening to the words, and still do. The same thing was true when I listened to the Roilling Stones, Doors, the Who, and other rock-n-roll groups. Lots of that music is also great for dancing to. Due to issues that won’t be discussed on this essay, however, I didn’t have the opportunity to dance to this great music, but listening to it gave me lots of satisfaction. The Endless Summer, about surfing, was also cool, as was the movie, which I saw twice. The rock-n-roll music of that period reached its peak in 1968, and, then a slow decline in rock music began, although by 1969 and even well into the 1970’s, there was still good rock music to be had, despite the 1970’s disco scene, which I wasn’t crazy about.

I’ve never been a big fan of Country music generally, but even some of that has had a special appeal to me. Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue, although funny, was also clear that
boys and men who are different from the so-called "norms" have to face tough challenges to their machismo, and therefore their very survival. Glen Campbell, whose politics I’m not crazy about, also had some wonderful songs during that period. The song Gentle on My Mind, which is clearly about a rambling man who misses his lady love and thinks about her a lot, is a beautiful song. Written by Jim Webb, this song is sung with much gusto and emotion by Glen Campbell. Although By the Time I Get to Phoenix, a song about a guy who was leaving his longtime girl for the last tiime, was also a big hit of Glen Campbell’s during that period, I never really liked it very much,. However, Wichita Lineman, about a lineman working the telephone lines for his county, missing his love and “hearing her singing through the wires and through the wine”, was an intense song that I came to like a great deal, and was another Jim Webb Song sang with much emotion by Glen Campbell. However, I believe that Glen Campbell’s best songs were as follows: Galveston, another Jim Webb Song, is about a young man who goes off to war without knowing why, leaving his dark-eyed girlfriend and his hometown of Galveston behind. Missing home, he often dreams of his girlfriend and of Galveston The most intense part of this song is

“I still see her standing by the water
standing there lookin’ out to sea.
and she waiting there for me,
on the beach where we used to run”

“Galveston, oh Galveston,
I am so afraid of dying
Before I dry the tears she’s crying
Before I watch your seabirds flying
in the sun..at Galveston”

The song, Galveston, which came out in 1969, during our Indo- China involvement, imo, has a very anti-war flavor to it, and is sung with much aplomb and emotion by Glen Campbell--very moving--even tear-jerking. Originally a Civil War song, it was made a hit by Glen Campbell in 1969, during our Viet Nam conflict, and sung by Glen Campbell with much emotion.

True Grit, the theme song from the movie, which I saw during the summer of 1969, when it first came out, is also quite moving, and beautifully sung by Glen Campbell. The movie
True Grit, which is set during the late 1800’s in the American West, is about a 14-year-old girl who, determined to avenge her father’s death and to see his killer brought to justice, is helped by a drunken one-eyed marshall (John Wayne), and “La Boeuf”, a sheriff from Texas (Glen Campbell).

Two other hits of Glen Campbell’s, Rhinestone Cowboy, and Country Boy, are also songs that’re are sung with aplomb and emotion. Rhinestone Cowboy is about life in the fast lane--”hustlle’s the name of the game, and nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain”, and the hustling often done in order to keep up and afloat, while dreaming what they'll do with the money that one's making.

The song Country Boy was probably written with Elvis Presley in mind, is also about in the fast lane, and yet feeling the need to slow down and look around a bit.. Both Rhinestone Cowboy and Country Boyare also sung with great emotion by Glen Campbell.

Now, with more folksy music, one of my favorite folk-rock composers is Ontario, Canada-born Gordon Lightfoot, who I’ve seen in concert and who performed beautifully. One of the songs he sang while in concert was Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and he was excellent. Although I’m a big fan of Gordon Lightfoot, his chilling, haunting song Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, based on a true to life event, is my favorite Gordon Lightfoot song. This song, about a great big freighter with an experienced crrew of 29 men who met a horrible fate when their ship broke apart and sank to the bottom of Lake Superior in one of its notorious November storms, often moves me a great deal, and seems to send a message that life can be snuffed out in a moment, at Mother Nature’s whims. Lake Superior is said to have claimed even more lives than the Gulf of Mexico, and the words “Lake Huron roills, Superior sings, in the rooms of her ice-water mansion”, mean that the lake is so cold that people who end up in Lake Superior, especially at that time of year, have no chance of survival unless help is obtained right away. The words “Superior, they say, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early”, mean that the bodies are often never found again, because the water is much too cold to give rise to the kind of bacteria that cause dead bodies to become bloated and rise to the surface.

The words “later that night, when the ship’s bell rang,
could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
‘Twas the witch of November come steallin””

clearly mean that one of the ultra-ferocious November gales that Lake Superior is known for, was eminent, and they could not avoid it.

Other songs about true to life events abounded during that period also. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Four Dead in Ohio, about the killing of four students at Kent State University by the National Guard at the height of an anti-war protest back in early May 1970, is also a good example of a song whose message must be listened to closely, as it, too, points out that life can be snuffed out sensely and without warning.

Barbara Streisand’s rendition of Laura Nyro’s Stoney End, is also movingly beautiful, and, although I’ve always had the impression that it’s about being stoned, it’s also about the ruefullness of having engaged in a one-night stand, but probably being stoned in the process as well. Barbara Streisand sings this song with great emotion and abandon, and seems to be at her finest in the process.

There are many, many more songs that have a special meaning, but I just picked certain songs as examples of songs that really do carry a special meaning and message. I always enjoy listening to the above-mentioned songs and more (and still do), yet I've never really considered the meaning of many of these songs until recently. Many of the older songs, imo, are among the best and the strongest, althouth there was much junk in those days, also. Jeannie C. Riley’s Harper Valley PTA, from 1968, about a mother who takes tha floor at a Harper Valley, Ohio PTA meeting one afternoon to blast them for their hypocrisy, is also a powerful, moving song, about women asserting themselves in a predominantly man's world, which engenders a “go get ‘em” attitude, although there's still a long way to go. This song gtves a feeling of strength.

Other songs, such as Hensen Cargill’s Skip A Rope, which also came out during that same period, point out the dangerous, destructive consequences of racism, are also moving, but sobering, and the message is also worth listening closely too. some of the songs during that period, such as Love Is All Around by the Troggs, are about the beautiy of love at its height, and/or or love that has gone wrong, or on the verge of going wrong. Some songs of that period are just plain fun and fantasy. Others, such as the above-mentioned songs in this essay, have special messages about the way life is in general, while others such as the Tremeloes’ Here Comes My Baby, whiich, although about broken love, are also great for dancing to.

Some of the songs move me t o the point of wanting to dance, others are for listening closely to, others bring about a feeling of exuberance, and still others are tear-jerking.

One song Let Her Go Down, about a ship that sank due to the captain’s arrogance and refusal to put his ship to port despite the threat of a raging storm off of England’s coast, and is made famous by the rock group, The Hollies, is clearly indicative of and sends a message about what’s going on today with our administration. When I first listened to that song, I was immediately reminded of the arrogance of the people now in power in Wash“Let her go Down, imo is a rather fitting song for that, and, although I forget who it was originally written by, the Hollies do it beautifully, with much emotion. Since the list of my favorite songs would invariably go on forever, I only mentioned afew of them, and what I think they mean.

Regarding classical music, my favorite classical music pieces are Tchaikovskiy’s Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake, and Handel’s The Messiah, especially the Christmas part. Christmas carols, even though Christmas isn’t my holilday, never cease to move me when they’re sung and/or played by a professional organist and choir. The schmalltzy renditions, however, that blare out of department stores and malls during the Christmas season, however, turn me off--a great deal. Until I was an adult, I always regarded Christmas carols as a special kind of music only to be played/sung at a certain time of the year, but never thought of them as having any religious connotations to them. Now that I’m older and more aware., I still regard Christmas carols as beautiful, but yet many of them have a somewhat darker message mixed in, regarding religion.

Opera, for some reason, is something that I’ve never been able to get into, and the same thing is true of Jazz.

The music from West Side Story also has meaning--it helps bind and package together a beautiful movie/musical classic that’s a well-loved golden-oldie-but goody classic that , for all the racial/ethnic tensions and urban gang warfare, provides a ray of hope, as well as a concrete message about the destructive consequences of bigotry and hatred.

Many of the older songs, I believe, reflect different aspects of life, the general, fast moving tempo of life and the desire to slow down and take a longer look around oneself, of great love at its peak, and of love gone wrong, or about to go wrong. Songs also tell of strength, emotions felt, and of avenge committed in the name of love. They also tell about how life can never be taken for granted, because it can be lost or compromised in a moment.

I believe that music takes many different forms, and many different meanings.

So...what do you all think? Would love to get some feedback here.