My Playlist

by Marilynn S. Turner

Written 8/1/2012

Going through my playlist:

1.      Go In Grace, by Sweet Honey in the Rock

2.      She Just Wants to Dance, by Keb Mo

3.       Mystic Voyage, by Roy Ayers

4.       Seasons of Love, Cast of Rent

5.       Wanting Memories, by Sweet Honey in the Rock

6.      Way Over Yonder, by Carol King

7.      In My Life, by the Beatles

8.      Georgia on My Mind, by Ray Charles

The eight songs listed above are the favorite ones on my playlist. I don’t like them in any special order, but I do seem to like them together. Most of the time I find myself listening to them when I’m missing someone. Not all, but most of these songs remind me of people once in my life, or now in my life. Listening to them is not a sad thing, nor can I describe it as happy. I will say however that it is warming. In a closed, quiet, soothing sort of way, these songs often take the ache out of my heart, bring a tear to my eye, and put a smile on my face.

Seasons of Love, by the Cast of Rent, is the song I play when I think of my grandfather, particularly in the last year of his life. The question is asked how do you measure the life of a woman or a man?  And the answer  is that you measure it in seasons of love.  I think that seasons of love is an apt metaphor for my grandfather’s 95 years.  I miss him every single moment of every single day. Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, the amount of time in a year according to the Gregorian calendar.  But a season of love is sounds so much better.

 My grandfather was a spirited, yet sensitive  “guy” and he adored his family. In his younger days he could have been described as hard livin’ and hard drinkin’. One of his last requests days before he died was to have a glass of Scotch, his favorite drink.

Wanting Memories by Sweet Honey in the Rock is the song I play for my grandmother. Despite the haunting melody, and the slight sweet longing I feel when I listen to it, the lyrics leave me with a sense of well being, just because someone taught me how to be.

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes .You used to rock me in the cradle of your arms, you said you’d hold me til the pains of life were gone, You said you’d comfort me in times like these and now I need you, now I need you and you are gone .Since you’ve gone and left me, there’s been so little beauty, but I know I saw it clearly through your eyes. When I try to hear your voice above the storms of life, then I remember all that I’ve been told. I thought that you were gone, but now I know you’re with me, you are the voice that whispers all I need to hear.  I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand, I know that I am blessed again and over again.

Sense of self is important. I realize now, that my grandmother gave me just that gift.

Despite being nearly 60 years old, I am a Daddy’s girl. I was daddy’s oldest girl, and as a girl, I used to hang out with my dad.  My dad was a very kind soft-spoken man who loved and doted on his family. We were the salt that gave his life its flavor. Go in Grace, by Sweet Honey in the Rock, is a song that I heard for the first time shortly after my father’s death.

“Little girl little girl, we see you almost grown, little girl little girl you’re moving on your own, we know your father’s left you child, you don’t need to fear, anytime you need him, you’ll feel his presence near.”

“The spirit of your fathers gonna guide you on your way. Little girl, little girl, little woman child, going down that road and make us all feel proud, Go in Grace, go in grace, go in grace.”

It’s a simple song, but it is a motivator. It’s also a reminder of the expectations that my father had for me and that even though his physical being is gone, he’s here in spirit, and he’s still got my back.

Georgia on my Mind by Ray Charles was my father’s favorite song. On my recent trip  there, during a family gathering, someone mentioned just that  when talking about him.  And it’s a song  I had played at his funeral. When I was a very young I remember my father playing this 45 record over and over and over again on the hi-fi.

Aaron was  Georgia boy in his heart and in his soul.  The way my father felt about his home influenced me greatly throughout my life. I was born in Connecticut,  raised in Connecticut, but in my heart I too am from Georgia. I remember my father telling of life on the farm, Georgia pines, Georgia peaches and pecans, and the Piney Grove Baptist  Church founded by his grandfather, the Rev. W.L. Turner. Of course life in Georgia was not all good, the reason he moved to Connecticut, the reason his visits back home became fewer and fewer.

But despite all these things, like the song says, “other arms reach out to me, other eyes smile tenderly, still in peaceful dreams I see, the road leads back to you.”

No matter, what, Georgia stayed on his mind.  This is the  song that will bring me to tears.

In the 1970’s, I bought the album Tapestry by Carole King. Back then I liked the songs It’s too late Baby, You’ve Got a Friend, Where You  Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, and You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman. The song that I seemed to miss is the one that I now listen to again and again; Way Over Yonder.  I guess I just wasn’t ready for it the first time around. But now it is one of those songs that rocks my core. The lyrics are hopeful, and although Carole King is the songstress in this case, I can just imagine it being belted out by any really good gospel choir.

“Way over yonder, is a place that I know, where I can find shelter, from hunger and cold. And the sweet tasting good life, is so easily found, way over yonder, that’s where I’m bound.

“I know when I get there, the first thing I’ll see, is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me. Then trouble’s gonna lose me,  worry leave me behind, and I’ll stand up proudly in true peace of mind.”

It’s Kitchy, schmaltzy, and sentimental, but In My Life, by the Beatles is just one more song that gets me misty eyed. It’s a memory song, it’s a song that makes me think of special people in my life, It’s also a song that gives me a thoughtful wistfulness.

“But of all these friends and lovers, there’s no one compares with  you,  and these memories lose their meaning, when I think of love as something new. Oh I know I’ll never lose affection for people and things that went before, I know I’ll often stop and think about them,  in my life I love you more.”

I love to dance. And my go- to song, when I have happy feet, or when I’ve had a few glasses of wine is,  She just Wants to Dance, by Keb Mo. When I play this song, I kick off my shoes and close my eyes, shimmying across the floor in my bare feet. My poor doggie thinks that I’ve taken loss of my senses, and for a few moments, perhaps I have, but do I care?

“When the music starts to play, she slides out on the floor, dancing without a partner, swaying on the two bit floor. There’s a rhythm in her footstep, and a flower in her hair, a smile on her face, cause she’s in a place where she don’t have a care. She ain’t lookin’ for no lover, she ain’t lookin’ for romance , she just wants to dance.”

“She can feel it in her fingers and it moves on down her spine, and when it hits her hips, she parts her lips and you know she’s feelin’ fine.”

  A bit risqué, huh? But fun nonetheless.

I don’t know how anyone listening to these lyrics can not  start movin’ around; “She ain’t looking for no lover, she ain’t looking for romance, she just wants to dance!” The song is sexy, sultry, sensuous. Sooo speakeasy!

Imagine  a breezy summer night, stars sparkling in the sky, frogs peeping, crickets creeking, drinking a nice mellow malbec, and listening to the  mellifluous sounds of  Roy Ayres‘s Mystic Voyage played on the vibraphone. This last song on my top  play list will smoothly, and gently carry you away  from the drudgery of your day. It’s the cool down song, the only instrumental song on the list; light, airy, sophisticated.

 Life is good! Can I get an Amen.