The Magic of Music

                                                                            The Magic of Music

Some songs have a magical incantation which can spark life in long lost memories. Bringing out all of those forgotten feelings in that moment of time. I often wondered if the musical artists of these songs had intended for me and other listeners to get such a raw and visceral reaction to their work.

Whenever I hear a paticular song, it invokes a certain memory that takes me back to the age of nine.  My older brother and I had a simple, book sized, AM/FM radio with just two dials on the front of it.  One for dialing into the station and one for volume.  These metallic knobs were personallized by my brother when he took blue and red felt tip ink pens and made his own special designs on them.  This old radio had a worn black leather texture with fraying and stringy edges and on the right corner of the radio that came from our abusive usage and lack of care by two adolescent boys.  Strips of black electrical tape was used to cover these worn edges and it was to hold a flapped back door of the radio onto the side cover.  I remember lying on my bed, at night, with only the radio's faint light illuminating the darkness around me.  The DJ of the night softly annouces the next 70's song that would lulaby me to sleep.  And in my sleep, I hear that song play as it slips into my dreams. I don't even remember the title of the song or the group that sings it but it always has the same effect every time I hear it. Lying in bed and looking at the red numbers on the plastic tuner cover as I fall asleep.  I'm nine years old again. 

There are songs that we allow them to touch our souls and make them personal to us, whether they are lyrics or a music piece.  I often ask myself how does these artists know what sets of music notes or what lines of poetry they write that would release those caged buterflies in the pit of my stomach?  I listen as the music plays.  It reaches the point that bring out these feelings that seemed to be locked in a old wooden chest.  All it takes is that special lyric or that series of musical notes to be the key to unlock it.  When it happens, time stands still as I re-live that special moment.  Sometimes, it is the vocalist and how they emotionally deliver lyrics to my ears.  Those lines of words plucks on my emotional nerve and then it happens; goosebumps, watery eyes, and butterflies.  What an expereince it is recalling a familiar face from my memories at the second I hear those musical notes.  A smile from a young mother I had forgotten.  I barely recall giggles and laughters coming from my brother and sister at a backyard family reunion .  And I remember a bright yellow sports jacket my father would wear with his white shoes as we went to church as a family.  My first love as a young man and my first heartbreak.

Now that I'm older and I have my own family, I often find myself searching for songs and music of my past so I can re-live my childhood memories, my teenager adventures, and my young adulthood achievements and disappointments.  When I was young, music did not mean much except something fun to listen and sing along.  However, as I aged, I begin to appreciate the simple gifts that music provides.  Making new memories with my own family and sometimes bridging the generation gap. One day I was in another part of the house surfing craigs list for a great bargain on boat parts.  My elementary aged school kids had their books out on the living floor working to complete their homework.  My oldest son starts humming a familiar tune that I can barely recognized.  I ask him what song are you humming?