Do you believe in rock ’n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,

Well I just stopped working completely because Don McLean's American Pie came on and I had to listen to it completely, unfettered by cataloging Bruce Catton. I realized how much that song means to me. What it represents. We listened to that song so intently when it came out. Every Thursday night for a semester, driving to our horseback riding class in college, me and my roommate. It was a happy time for us (little did we know what lay ahead for us--unhappy times, complicated times, conflict between us, separation and misunderstanding, and ultimately her death at age 23), we were sailing and loved every minute of those times. We loved the horses, the smell of the stables. We saddled and bridled the horses ourselves, we rode well, we had our favorite mounts, we were happy, really happy. Of course, when we got our grades I got an A and she got a B. It was her only B that semester and she was PISSED. Missed a 4.0 by HORSEBACK RIDING. What did it was the written test on parts of the horse. From my early years with my sister, memorizing everything about horses, I knew all about horses.

So that's Don McLean. There's an entire website devoted to American Pie. Some people take things very seriously. I've taken music seriously in my life, it has defined moments, years, moods for me. It can take me to a place in a matter of notes (I can name that song in 3 notes...). I love the Beatles, there's no richer music. My sister and her boyfriend singing Rocky Raccoon to me when I had the flu in high school, trying to cheer me up. Blind Faith, the Super Group, playing loudly on my raunchy stereo, Ginger Baker banging on his drums, Eric Clapton's velvet voice singing (who knew just how many drugs they were doing). Such great music! CSN&Y and Santana serenading Howard and me, endlessly. I'll skip the coffeehouse music we listened to at Heather on the Moor in Rockford, that really didn't do me much good at the time, just depressed me more than I already was, though some of it was truly wonderful music. Who remembers Leonard Cohen or the Chad Mitchell Trio?

So that's my stroll down Musical Memory Lane. There's more, much more, all those college years of the Allman Brothers and Jackson Brown (of course, those were the years after his wife killed herself and he was REALLY depressing to listen to). And the Kingston Trio years of our youth. Boy, 40 years of music takes you to a lot of places, doesn't it.