My friend Patti Hudson made me a mix for my birthday .It included many musical gems and memories. One of the songs “Lay Down “ by Melanie…. a song of my childhood. Made me burst into tears. It brings up so much for me this intense visceral wave. Memories of The landscape of my early life, full of images of the Vietnam War, young soldiers with a kind of lost vacant look in their eyes. Draft evaders, staying with us, finding a safe harbor, crashing at my parents house. Images across the black and white TV screen… jungles blowing up, violent demonstrations, people marching, National guardsmen, riot gear, guns, dogs and hoses. Me riding on my father’s shoulders at candlight vigils. ,The heat of NYC in the Summertime. My aunt going down South to register people to vote, Woodstock. Terrifying brutality, pushing against linked, arms, rising voices and hope… Somehow this song “lay down” holds so much of this for me…. The power of all of the voices, The gospel feel, the ache and yearning in Melanie’s voice, the line “we bled inside each others wound s,” Angry and hurting, as if we could have called it out, come together as one great voice and sang it out. Sang ourselves free “So raise candles high Cause if you dont we could stay black against the night Oh, raise them higher again And if you do we could stay dry against the rain” https://youtube/watch?v=xOExGVgQzRg
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 07:23:06 +0000
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