Times/Trials

10/5/2018

Once again, I am amazed at the SIMH on more the one front: I’m not a “fan” of very many singers or artists though I admire many. Phil Collins is a singer that has had many songs I’ve enjoyed and he, like Sinatra, Elvis, Joel, et al, has endured through decades of popular music. But the song still lingering this morning is a Phil Collins song that I may not have ever heard had it not been on an album Barb purchased and sometimes plays thru. “I Can Feel it Coming in the Air Tonight” was written by Collins and done in 1981. I’ve been up an hour and it’s still hanging in there. Many others have recorded it besides Collins—hmm, perhaps I should.

Some other music which I truly enjoy listening to includes some rock, some Southern Gospel, old hymns, John Denver, Alison Krauss (one reviewer said of her, “I’d listen to Alison Krauss sing the menu at Denny’s” — I probably would, too.) Alison Krauss does Paul Simon music better than Paul Simon. I really like the Eagles music, a bunch of left coast musicians who created an infectious sound. Just like most pop stuff, no real redeeming value, just enjoyable.

My first introduction to hearing music I enjoyed, but seemed out of my bailiwick came from radio in the ‘50s. While Elvis, Conway, Ricky were all getting more and more air time, I was listening (usually late at night for better reception) to a Nashville, TN station, WLAC, play rhythm ’n blues and Black Gospel. I heard “Searchin’” by the Drifters long before it was popular. In those early teen years I listened to Dinah Washington and Brook Benton before the world knew about them—before television and American Bandstand!

Sometimes I would nod off to sleep, then wakeup shortly to black Memphis preachers —they came on WLAC after my R&B music went off. I enjoyed listening to some of them. One man, if he was on, to whom I would always listen was a man I thought was Dinah Washington’s father, turned out he wasn’t, but he was a notable preacher to his audience. Pretty sure, as much as I can remember, he spoke of the work of Christ on the cross with a great passion. At any rate, he caught my attention each time with his distinctive voice and style. Wish I could mimic it here, but I don’t think you could hear me.

During this time period of my life, I listened to a lot of radio as an escape from being in a rather sad house. Though this was a short-lived sadness, it was hard to go through and would have been harder without music.

When I was 15, my brother Don was killed in a late night one-car accident, probably the result of going to sleep. This changed home life considerably. My father, who had pastored churches for about 18-19 years at the time, just sort of drew back a little. I got what our doctor called walking pneumonia during this time and my father drove me to the dr.’s office for what seemed like huge penicillin shots several days in a row. One of those days was a Sunday morning when he would have normally been in church. I asked him if he was ever going to preach again and as tears rolled out of his eyes, he said, “I don’t know, son.” I never continued the conversation. Seems to me it was a total of 8 weeks, he didn’t go preach. Then, when he did go he never sounded the same to me. Less fervor, I’d say.

What an interesting thing to remember this morning.

Thanks for reading, the Elder