Friday, August 12, 2011

Piers Anthony on Songs


Songs

Songs constantly run through my head. Some are popular ones I hear on the radio; many are folk songs I know from way back. Some are just incidental ones from anywhere. Each has its spot emotional history. For example “Cool Water” wherein two men trek through the desert, burning with thirst, dreaming of an oasis with plenty of water. “All day we faced the barren waste without the taste of water—cool, clear, water.” It's a lovely song. My mother wasn't much for the radio, but one day she turned it on, and they played that song. “I just somehow knew they'd play that one,” she said. When I mentioned it to a schoolmate, he said his favorite was the one on the other side of the record (in those days all we had was 78 RPM records that played about three minutes on a side), “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” That one's lovely too, about drifting along with the tumbling weeds, cares fading away. Westerns are not my favorite, but these are wonderful melodic songs. Another is “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” wherein an erring cowboy sees the riders in the sky, their horses' feet flashing fire, and one paused to warn him that if he doesn't change his ways he will wind up riding with them forever. What a message! But there are peripheral; other tunes dominate my skull. More on those another day.

18 comments:

  1. That last one, the Ghost Riders, just sparks awesome images in my head! Is that going to be in your next series? Perhaps a stand-alone about the cowboy?

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  2. Music has a tendency to replay through your brain in an endless loop. That's doubly true for those where there's a short, catchy refrain (such as the ones you mentioned.)

    Now I'll be humming "Cool, Clear Water" in my head for the next week. Thanks, lol.

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  3. Music chasing its tail in your brain.
    The Germans have a great name for that syndrome , ( in english ) :
    EARWORM ... Love it

    Anthony J Hopkins

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  6. I remember that tune from listening to the radio in the years before we had television. I still love that song and many others. Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Summer Wine, and all of Johnny Horton. Then there were the songs for kids, Teddy Bears Pivnic, and How Much is that Doggy in the Window. Some of these great old songs have been made available on youtube.

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  7. There are a lot of the precious oldies that will rekindle your youth at least a little. Visitors who never had the chance to hear real country music before electric guitars and amplifiers that did half the work of the vocalist can find many more like this:
    https://youtu.be/RxAQwMNXlic

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  8. I really love tumbling tumbleweeds. That song always speaks to me. It's as as you say, I totally agree.
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  9. I have heard of these songs you mentioned above but I haven't really listened to any of them. I'll do that. Thanks for sharing
    Regards
    Tracy
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