Music is something that moves us all. I don’t care if you’re in a biker gang, a knitting circle, a star football player or a Marine drill sergeant, music moves you.
My only regret in life is that I didn’t learn to play an instrument and maybe learn how to sing properly instead of what I hear about myself in the shower.
I’ve heard that musicians are historically good students, but don’t quote me on that. Come to think of it, when I was in high school, most of my fellow students who were into music were good students.
You and I have probably been singing and dancing to music for as long as we can remember, or at least your Aunt Sara confirmed.
I even watched videos of animals playing to the tune.
There’s just something about the rhythm of music that moves us. Could it go back as far as Neanderthal communication before language was invented?
Last week I was moved by the emotions of two musical artists, Joni Mitchell, who is alive and strong and the late, great Harry Chapin.
Mitchell returned to the stage after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. At the time, it was not known if she would survive or if the aneurysm would catch her.
It was a long road, but she came back, but before that happened, she had to relearn how to walk, she had to relearn how to play the guitar and the piano, and of course, she had to memorize the lyrics She wrote the most iconic songs ever in history modern music.
Some of those songs have been recorded on 43 recorded albums with her 44th album set to be released on September 23, 2022.
If you’ve been around long enough, you might remember Both Sides, Help Me, Woodstock, A Free Man Is Paris, Carrie, You Turn Me On, I’ve Been Working, The River and Big Yellow Cab, her biggest hit.
She was a special guest of Brandi Carlile at the Newport Folk Festival last Sunday, July 24, when other artists who appeared at the festival surrounded her singing her songs.
Joni sang solo, she sang with singers in the background and she sat and listened to other singers perform her songs. It was wonderful.
As she had to be helped to walk on stage, she and everyone else sat in chairs as she did in her home while rehabilitating from an aneurysm.
At one point she got up to play one of her guitar instrumentals. There wasn’t a dry eye on stage or in the audience as she performed, and the smiles were from ear to ear.
Joni will be 79 on November 7th and you could see it in her eyes as she performed that she loved every minute of being back on that stage. She also felt the love and admiration of the audience and fellow performers.
Joni is a national treasure of her native Canada, her adopted country, the USA, and she is a human being of the world. She and her music belong to all of us. Her songs are woven into the fabric of all our lives.
Harry Chapin, a native New Yorker, was one of the greatest songwriters whose life was tragically cut short on the Long Island Expressway on July 16, 1981 in a horrific fiery car accident that ended his life at the age of 38.
My first memory of Chapin was his famous song, Taxi, in 1972, followed by Cats in the Cradle in 1975.
I got to see Chapin perform live in Rocky Glen or was it called Ghost Town in the Glen at the time? It must have been between 1975 and 1980 if I am correct.
I really enjoyed the show, it was basically him and his guitar and maybe his backing band. He always performed sitting down and this show was no different.
He sang his famous hit until the concert, but he released one song that I hadn’t heard before. His name was Mr. Tanner.
The song about Mr. Tanner is about a man who worked at a dry cleaners in Dayton, Ohio. As he worked, Mr. Tanner would sing out loud with an incredible baritone. Everyone encouraged him to quit his cleaning job and go to New York to find fame and fortune.
Finally, a concert hall in New York was booked and he played to half-full audiences and some music critics.
Needless to say, the night did not end well for Mr. Tanner.
He returned to his hometown vowing never to sing in public again, except very late at night, he would sing quietly to himself.
I may not remember the fine details of Chapin’s concert that day in Moosic, but I will never, ever forget Harry singing Mr. Tanner. At the end of the song, tears were streaming down my face and I tried my best to hide them, but when I lifted my head and looked around, I wasn’t the only one with tears streaming down my face.
It was the first time I was moved by hearing a song and it just wasn’t the song, it was the way Harry presented it to the audience.
“One day you wake up and suddenly realize that your youth is behind you, even though you are still young at heart.” – Joni Mitchell
“To know is to care, to care is to act, to act is to make a difference.” – Harry Chapin
“I want the fact that I existed to mean something.” – Harry Chapin
