Music Makes Me Smile

Music makes me smile.

How about you?

Heh, have you ever had a not so great day where everything seems to be going wrong? Maybe your wife backed the car into the garage door?

Or the dogs ran through the house with mud on their paws right after you had the carpets cleaned?

The neighbor kid wakes you up at 5 in the morning and you’re not a morning person?

I once heard the definition of a bad day. You know you’re having a bad day if you’re following a motorcycle gang of Hell’s Angels and your car horn gets stuck.

You know you’re having a bad day if you wake up and your waterbed has sprung a leak, except you don’t own a waterbed.

You know you’re having a bad day when... you fill in the blanks.

So you say you’re having a bad day, eh? You flip on the radio and even though you’re a conservative, those right wing talk show hosts are giving you a headache.

You punch the FM button and start scanning the dial for something interesting. Next thing you know, you’re singing at the top of your lungs with the Doobie Brothers, “Listen to the Music.”

Of course, at this point your windows are rolled up and people are staring at you at the stoplight. But heh, who cares… you just had an attitude transplant.

Historically speaking, it has been said that 'Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.'That’s from a play The Mourning Bride by William Congreve who lived from 1670 to 1729, right around the time Ben Franklin was born.

Think about this. The blind violinist touched the raging heart of Frankenstein’s monster.

One of my all time favorite songs quieted the fearful trembling of a lost little girl from Kansas when she sang, “Over the Rainbow,” in The Wizard of Oz. Or another favorite is the rock group Chicago’s classic, “Make Me Smile.”

There’s a lot to be said for the power of music. I happen to like all styles of music… classical, jazz, gospel, rock, folk, country, even bluegrass. There’s even a little Rap that I can slightly tolerate.

In fact, my love of music and my childhood dream of being a famous radio disk jockey came into reality several years ago when I got to get paid for having fun doing a morning drive show in Kansas City.

In my fifteen minutes of fame, I had the privilege of playing the most popular music of that day over the airwaves and interview some people a lot more famous than me.

My latest hobby is collecting music concert DVD’s. So when I heard that a local music store was going out of business, I rushed over to see what kind of deals I could get to add to my collection. Well, it just so happened that they had the vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd documentary, Freebird.

So guess what I did?

I bought it!

And also a fantastic concert by the original members of Fleetwood Mac. The encore numbers performed by Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nix, John and Christie McVie and Mick Fleetwood not only made me smile but made me want to get up and dance. And if you’d ever seen my dancing, it’s not a pretty sight. I’m a bad version of Steve Martin’s “Happy Feet.”

The band surprised the audience with a drum pounding rendition of Tusk, that included the entire University of Southern California marching band in full parade dress. That made me smile real big.

If that weren’t enough, they performed their hit song, Don’t Stop. It talks about jettisoning the past and moving on with hope and optimism. A very rousing anthem that reverberates with, “don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, don’t stop, it will soon be here. It’ll be here, better than before… yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.”

Perhaps the most famous rendition of this song was when Fleetwood Mac sang at the first William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Inaugural. Regardless of your political affiliation, you have to admit it was pretty cool.

Okay, don’t admit it. What do I care?

Maybe you’re not a big music fan like I am, but can you imagine a world without music? Every TV show has its theme music. The Superbowl commercials often feature famous oldies and even CSI plays a tune by The Who. Music is woven into the very fabric of our society.

Even “sacred” music ain’t so sacred if you study it. Another contemporary of Ben Franklin, Englishman Charles Wesley wrote a couple hundred religious songs that are still sung today.

Guess what? Most people are unaware that these “holy” songs were sung to the tunes of popular bar songs of the 18th century. Surprise.

You may recall Charles older brother John Wesley had no small hand in starting the Methodist Church.

How is it that we humans have this inner compass that is drawn like a magnet to the North Pole called music?

The 1960’s were full of folk songs whose lyrics shaped political opinions. Lyricists have forever captured the climate of the current culture and phrased songs in a way that touched us and moved us deeply.

So my anthem for today would be this: Let the music in.

Maybe for you it’s been a long time since you let anything in to touch you in the deepest part of your soul. Maybe it’s time for you to turn a corner in your life.

Maybe it’s your time to take the strong suggestion of Fleetwood Mac, “don’t stop thinking about tomorrow… yesterday’s gone.”

Your future will always be brighter if you let the music in.