Stories

Simon & Garfunkel in the school newsroom

Simon & Garfunkel in the school newsroom

I remember two or three Simon and Garfunkel albums we’d play when we were putting together the school newspapers. The records used to end, unlike now with digital music. We put together a newspaper back when you had to count the words and the letters—I can’t imagine. I didn’t go to grad school until there were word processors. Fun things to think about, that music accompanies almost every memory we have.

Musicals through the generations

Musicals through the generations

My mother loved musicals, so we had records of musicals. I remember clearly that it was true competence when I could change the records myself. When I was younger, you could put it on repeat; but when I could turn it over myself and put it back down, that was a very important first competence, being able to play the music for yourself. I’m not a musician, so being able to play the music was pretty great. I remember going…

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Striking musical memories

Striking musical memories

My best friend and I took piano lessons from the choir director at our church. I lived six blocks from Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, and she would get a lot of music majors in the choir, and she would sing solos every once in a while. My friend Richard and I would sit in the front row, and we’d love it when she’d sing “In the Garden.” She would open her mouth so wide, we’d try to count the…

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Cutting teeth on the record console

Cutting teeth on the record console

My parents had a furniture and appliance store, and they brought home one of those big console radio things. You could pull out a drawer and stack 10 records at once. My earliest memory is looking over the edge of that drawer. I must have been cutting teeth at the time, because I was gnawing on the edge of the drawer while Tommy Dorsey’s boogie woogie was going on.

We shall overcome

We shall overcome

I went to a church conference once in Chicago, and the theme was African American spirituals. One of the songs we did, was they had all thousands of us stand up, hold hands, and sing We Shall Overcome, and I felt like I had electricity running all through my body—it was incredible. It was like somebody just hooked me up to the juice—it was really bizarre.

This Little Light and the power of group singing

This Little Light and the power of group singing

Growing up with the Sunday School version of This Little Light of Mine, it’s been funny in my life to gradually realize what a powerful song it’s been for our nation for purposes outside of Sunday School and how great it sounds when you have a large group of people singing it together for a reason. It’s great when you have a song that’s so malleable like that. As a child, starting to recognize the power of singing in large…

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First songs, first albums

First songs, first albums

First album I bought was Bob Dylan’s greatest hits, with Blowin’ in the Wind and Mr. Tambourine Man. Blowin’ in the Wind was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar. “My Girl” was what they played at the end of the first high school dance I went to. A lot of the Motown music was popular at the end of high school. My song that I played the most later when I played the guitar…

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When we were young

When we were young

Early musical memory: in kindergarten, we did a lot of drama and Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Ella Jenkins—got me in to the arts. Dad used to play Emmylou Harris, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon. John Denver—“Back Home Again”—reminded me of a prairie, living on a farm. When we were young, my brother would always build buildings and pretend to live in them, and now he lives outside a big city, and I would always make small places and live on a…

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Music as a marker of stages of life

Music as a marker of stages of life

Layers of memories. Budding adolescence…first party in a dark basement with 45 records, the lights are dim, the girls are on one side of the room and the guys are on the other side, and you’re trying to figure out what to do. And what I remember is “Mr. Sandman”—that was one of the 45s. That brought up all kinds of gooey thoughts, about dancing and sweating and those kinds of things. Then a little later—I grew up and went…

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Music means family

Music means family

One song popped in my head: Proud Mary. I love that song. Music has memories. I remember being in the farm shop, working on something that was broken with my family: my father, my uncle, my grandmother, all of us would work on it and we’d make a new implement in the shop. For me it’s a family thing, even though not all of my family is musical. We were listening to the radio, and Proud Mary was on. My…

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