Thursday, December 8, 2011

All We Are Saying...



December 8, 1980
Do you remember what you were doing?
Do you remember where you were?
Do you remember how you felt?


OKAY
I know this is unrelated to most things I write about
AND
I am not normally gaga over famous people
BUT
John Lennon was different
I was very little when I heard the Beatles for the first time.
Their music was constantly playing
 on my Mom's AM radio in the kitchen
I would sit on the breezeway or play in the yard,
but not so far away from the kitchen door
 that I couldn't hear the radio.
looks really close....seriously

My Mom had the radio tuned to WRKO most of time
music would be playing everyday
 while she did housework
she would turn it up....
LOUD


That wonderful Rickenbacker sound
would crack through the air straight into my little soul
& not having any of those insecurities
 that I would have as I got older
I would immediately stand up,
attempting to do the twist,
singing at the top of my lungs.....

Oh yeah I
Tell ya something...
I think you'll understand
When I say that something...
I wanna hold your hand
According to my Parents
When we would stand to sing in church
I would sing the same thing.....



Being born in 1963
my generation started off
knowing extreme sadness
 by seeing it felt by a Nation...

By the time I was 10 years old
JFK had been Assasinated
Bobby Kennedy Killed
Martin Luther King Killed
Richard Nixon & Watergate
 ruined my family's trust in the presidency.
AND
through a childs mind
the nightly news was just
pictures of young men moving through a jungle,
the reading of body counts
& men with microphones asking these
 poor souls about the loss of their youth.


John Lennon
for me had always been
my cool hippy representation of
Love
Peace
HOPE
I did cry when the Beatles broke up
but I knowingly took John's hand as he lead me
into knowing who HE was
without the Beatles.

I was a senior in high school
when he was killed in front of his home
I heard about it on my radio the next morning
while I was busy with my curling iron
turning my hair into a Farah Flip.

The Words Were Spoken,
The Limited Details Given,
as they went to commercial.
I sat motionless.....

What?




What??


WHAT??




The DJ's voice returned
repeating the news
then adding....

"Someone has just called making a request," he said
"he's asked me to play this song
because today the music has died"


eyes burning
I heard Don McLean


"A long long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died......."



inconceivable


It has been said.......
That Mine is the "Cynical Generation"
hmmmmmmm
ya think?

1 comment: