As I prepared to take my walk this morning, I had to make my music selection. I decided to go with my “UAHS Rock” playlist, featuring songs from my high school years. The songs on it are old, obviously, but they are still great favorites. Who doesn’t still relish the songs from their youth?
When I walked down the steps to the sidewalk, the first song on the playlist began: Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run, which was a huge hit during my high school days. For those who can’t remember them, the lyrics begin like this:
Stuck inside these four walls,Sent inside forever,
Never seeing no one
Nice again like you,
Mama you, mama you.
Thought of giving it all away
To a registered charity.
All I need is a pint a day
If I ever get outta here
If we ever get outta of here.
It’s safe to say that I reacted to those lyrics in a different way this morning, squinting into the bright sunshine as I carefully maintained my “social distance” from everyone else who was walking and jogging outside, than I did hanging out in the basement of the family home, with the cheap all-in-one stereo unit down there cranked up to intolerable levels, in 1975. And a few songs later Stevie Wonder’s Superstition came on, and I had a similarly different reaction to this line: “Very superstitious; wash your face and hands.”
One of the great things about music is that the listener always brings something to the experience, with songs reminding you of high school prom or hanging with your college chums or making you think about this or that. I wonder how many other songs are going to be thought of differently, forever, as a result of the Shutdown March of 2020?
