And I Was
photo credit, Doug Plummer
I live my life surrounded by music.
I spend time doing it every single day. I play piano, I sing, I teach, I practice, I perform.
I’ve spent a lot of time wondering in the last year or two if making music still brings me joy. Often (and I know this breaks my husband’s heart) the answer is “it’s just work.”
Dave would like it a lot if I, his bandmate, loved to practice and dig in and analyze and find new angles on the same old tunes as much as he does. He’d love it if I really explored the new tunes he writes. Time for music in his life is his joy. He can’t understand why it’s not mine. I hate disappointing him.
Except…
Been there, done that.
For about 60 years.
When I think about retiring, I think about silence –
the only music from the wind, the water and the birds.
Except…
The music that brings me joy is that I haven’t tried to play, haven’t dug into, have kept as a guilty unprofessional pleasure out in my car. The stuff I quickly turn off when someone else gets in for a ride. Pure ear candy. Pure listening joy. No chord analysis. (Well, there was once when I used Psycho Killer to teach I, IV and V chords. But that was a long time ago when teens could relate to that.)
Music from the Prog Rock Era through the early New Wave.
Bring on the Genesis, the Peter Gabriel, the Police, the Pretenders, the Joe Jackson, the Talking Heads. Now we’re talking, indeed. Smile on my face, singing at the top of my lungs in the car where no one can hear me. I still know every word.
And if I narrow it down even more, the song that makes me happy every single time I hear it, that defines what I’ve always wanted out of life? And She Was by the Talking Heads.
I spend time doing it every single day. I play piano, I sing, I teach, I practice, I perform.
I’ve spent a lot of time wondering in the last year or two if making music still brings me joy. Often (and I know this breaks my husband’s heart) the answer is “it’s just work.”
Dave would like it a lot if I, his bandmate, loved to practice and dig in and analyze and find new angles on the same old tunes as much as he does. He’d love it if I really explored the new tunes he writes. Time for music in his life is his joy. He can’t understand why it’s not mine. I hate disappointing him.
Except…
Been there, done that.
For about 60 years.
When I think about retiring, I think about silence –
the only music from the wind, the water and the birds.
Except…
The music that brings me joy is that I haven’t tried to play, haven’t dug into, have kept as a guilty unprofessional pleasure out in my car. The stuff I quickly turn off when someone else gets in for a ride. Pure ear candy. Pure listening joy. No chord analysis. (Well, there was once when I used Psycho Killer to teach I, IV and V chords. But that was a long time ago when teens could relate to that.)
Music from the Prog Rock Era through the early New Wave.
Bring on the Genesis, the Peter Gabriel, the Police, the Pretenders, the Joe Jackson, the Talking Heads. Now we’re talking, indeed. Smile on my face, singing at the top of my lungs in the car where no one can hear me. I still know every word.
And if I narrow it down even more, the song that makes me happy every single time I hear it, that defines what I’ve always wanted out of life? And She Was by the Talking Heads.
"And She Was"
And she was lying in the grass
She could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She’s making sure that she’s not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbor's house
Now she’s starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes….
The world was moving, she was right there with it
and she was
The world was moving, she was floating above it
And she was
And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up about the earth
Moving into the universe
And she's drifting this way and that
Not touching the ground at all
And she's up above the yard
She was glad about it, no doubt about it
She isn't sure about what she's done
No time to think about what to tell them
No time to think about what she's done
And she was
And she was looking at herself
And things were looking like a movie
She had a pleasant elevation
She's moving out in all directions, oh, oh, oh
The world was moving, she was right there with it
And she was
The world was moving, she was floating above it
And she was
Joining the world of missing persons
And she was
Missing enough to feel all right
And she was
And she was.
David Byrne, take me away.
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