It's not happenstance that I married a musician. Nothing can transform my mood faster than a good beat; something I discovered from my father as a child.
Sometimes when he looked down, unexpectedly he’d put on music, I'd place my feet on top of his slippers and for hours we'd dip, swoop and glide across the hardwood floors in our PJ's. It became our weekend morning pastime. And in the eyes of my father I was as agile as a ballroom dancer.
My father loved music of all kinds and had a lot of rhythm, as a tall and imposing big man, he was finely coordinated, was an excellent dancer and although he did not play an instrument, he had a musical soul. He’d taught me my first steps as a social dancer and as an adolescent, I too learned this trick– dancing as a way to save myself from falling into the doldrums. For decades this is what I did immediately following my journal writing, it helped get me out of my head and reminded me that I have a body.
Today being Saturday, I heard Lovergirl by the R&B singer Teena Marie this morning, did it ever bring back memories of tape decks and hitting repeat over and over again. And despite it being 25 years old, I still can't keep still when I hear it and love this song as much today as I did then.
Fast forward to 2011 and I'll share my listening favorite of 2010, I bought it for myself as a birthday treat, it's got a cool beat and video reminiscent of the 1980's, fun and light especially with the jump rope scene.
The musical group Les Shades are from Montreal, a city I fell in love with when I visited the summer of 1988 when my brother married. More on that trip later.
Their Chinatown album features the single, Penelope:
I hope you'll enjoy it and that music will do for you what's it done for me, make you glad to be alive and be a lifelong friend. Have a new year filled with happiness and abundance on all levels of your lives. À votre plaisir!
Linda,
ReplyDeleteThat was truly lovely. Thank you.
And best wishes to you and your husband for the new year/new decade ahead. All things bright and beautiful!
Roberta
Second Samuel 6:14 in the Bible spoke of King David of Israel dancing before the Lord with all his might. King David was a man after God's own heart. This went through my mind as I saw my parents severely punish my older sister for dancing to modern music in 1968. As preacher's kids, we were held to an standard that felt unreal, sometimes impossible, but it was our expected roles.
ReplyDeleteI was a closet musician. Early in life I started playing guitar, piano and organ. Although I seemed to have a gift for music, I was forced into a mold by my minister parents. I could only play and sing Gospel music, nothing else. In fact, I was counseled that if I sang or played "wordly" music, God would smite me down and take the gift from me.
I remember at the age of 14, I was in my room, quietly playing House of the Rising Sun on my guitar. My bedroom door burst open and my mother attacked my guitar with a pair of scissors, cutting through all the strings. That image stayed with me to adulthood, and was a catalist to my moving away from the formalized religeons, returning to my music with the freedom to play, sing, listen and dance as I wished.
I appreciate music of all kinds, and dance is an expression of our soul, plain and simple. That is as long as it doesn't include a pole and a scantly clad dancer. That touches a different part of the soul.
Happenstance?? Must be a Doctor Webster's Americanisation of the English language.
ReplyDeleteIndianisation of English is a joke.
Look for a jazz singer from the 1920/30s. You my like her music. If you like jazz.
I'll take a look/listen at the singers you suggest. Ilike to find music I haven't heard before.
I'm still noot used to finding music here in the USA.