Recently we watched a documentary about movie scores. Someone in the documentary said, “Music is the one thing that we all understand that we don’t understand.” Everyone responds to music in their own way. I watch E.T. on Elliot’s bicycle once a week. I watch it and rewind it to the point before it happens. It is always ready for me to watch those few moments.
Music has always been part of my life. I started with piano lessons with Ms Pegg in my hometown. After that I started with the band in 5th grade. That followed me through until college.
While the video above is from another year, the pregame performance has stayed the same. Here is a photo of me in my college band uniform on the 9th of October, 1986
I was fortunate to travel to various college football games with the band. The band had many members. On trips when we traveled to away games, we went with at least two state trooper automobiles, sometimes four. With this trooper escort, the bus caravan of six to eight did not have to stop for traffic lights. The troopers would turn on their hazard lights and block off the intersections to allow us to travel together.
“On the East Coast, football is a cultural experience. In the Midwest, it’s a form of cannibalism. On the West Coast, it’s a tourist attraction. And in the South, football is a religion, and Saturday is the holy day.”
Thinking back, this may be why my favorite musical is The Music Man. My favorite part of the musical is when they sing “Wells Fargo Wagon”, which in my opinion, is about hope and surprise. Now we track packages. Often there is no surprise when the delivery truck stops in your driveway.
Playing For Change has many songs on YouTube. This one is my favorite.
It does not matter if you understand the language of the song. Music impacts us all in many different ways. We remember the words to many songs that we listened to throughout our lives.
This is a link to the full version of the documentary I mentioned at the top of this post.
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