Re: FW: Best wishes to all Americans

["Lawrence T. McDonnell" <trixie@ksts.seed.net.tw>]

Veronica--

Your words are testimony to the comfort and discomfort of music.  I know when I
have real trouble in my life--I turn of the stereo and can't listen to
anything.  When it all starts to get better, it's usually some bluegrass gospel
I want to hear first (the Johnson Mountain Boys singing "Daniel Prayed", maybe),
or Jimmy Cliff singing "Many Rivers to Cross."  Then I can try Gorecki, Glenn's
'81 Goldberg, and finally Franco Corelli lambasting Turandot or Pagliacci

How does that line go?  "He restoreth my soul."  Something like that....

Now, I am no big Madonna fan myself, but I have to report an identical
experience.  I was in a bookstore in Taiwan here today, by sheer necessity--all
I wanted to do was pull the covers over my head--when Elvis came on the
speakers, singing "Tell Me Mama."  God help me, I couldn't keep from tapping my
foot.  And that's when I knew it was going to be all right, somehow.

"Turn it up," big Van the Man said, "so you know it's got soul."  This is
precisely what he meant.  Life goes on, in its deepest healing rhythms and
melodies, in spite of the deepest tragedies.  It will not be defeated, and we
can't really say why.

We can just say thanks.

Larry

Veronica Andrew wrote:

> Dear Mary (and all),
>
> >I think I'll put on Verdi's Requiem-- my own personal music of mourning.
> >Does anyone have any suggestions for good 'dark night of the soul'
> >music? Perhaps Brahms?
>
> That's a great question.  I didn't play music on Tuesday; I was glued to
> MSNBC.  But in the late afternoon (here in San Francisco) I went with my
> husband, who'd been sent home early from work, to the grocery store.  We
> just needed to get out of the house.  A woman outside was selling an 'extra'
> edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with all the terrible pictures on it,
> the first 'extra' since the bad earthquake here in 1989.  Inside the store,
> the few shoppers were walking around in a daze.  People were hardly talking.
>  And of all things, Madonna's "I'll Remember" was on the speakers when we
> came in.  I had not heard it for years, in fact I'm not really a Madonna
> fan, but I stood there and listened for awhile anyway, feeling sadder and
> sadder.  I'm sure I'll never hear that song again without getting a lump in
> my throat.
>
> Veronica