These Old Songs

When we were kids, Mom and Pop had their country and western records, and we had our ‘kid records’, including a few that Mom had when she was a little girl, most of which were little yellow 45’s with songs from Peter Pan on them. But there was a special category of discs, 78’s as thick as plates with one or two songs on each side, which defied definition. Whether they had belonged to Pop or Mom it was hard to say exactly; they never seemed to play them for their own amusement. But something about them appealed to us, whimsy or humor or just undefined emotion, and when the mood was on us, we’d put them on the player, switch the speed up, and ‘dance’ or jump around or mime to the beat like maniacs. Anyway, here are links to some of those old songs on YouTube. I hope my brothers will enjoy them. Anybody else who listens … make of them what you will.

Kenny Roberts ~ Casper, the Candy Cowboy - YouTube

Kenny Roberts ~ Mickey the Chickey - YouTube

Rosemary Clooney - This Ole House - YouTube

Guy Mitchell - Christopher Columbus - YouTube

Dean Martin - The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane - YouTube

As you can see, some of them were connected to holidays. I listened to “This Ole House” well into my dotage before my nephew Kameron, much to my surprise, correctly identified the bass singer as Thurl Ravenscroft, which I’d never realized in all my years. That boy has an ear on him! As I say, Mom and Pop had the country and western records, and, though we had favorite songs among the albums, we weren’t allowed to touch them until we were much older. John still has most of those records in his archives, I believe. After Pop passed away, I wrote this poem:

 

RECORDS FOUND

 

Mute inglorious souls,

Your records sing for you

Now that your voices are stilled.

 

I hear them through scratches and clicks:

Your dreams and fears,

Tenderness, tears, and weariness,

 

Those things you could not say

That swelled your hearts

To yearning, until they flew--or burst.

 

Mother, Father, bless anew my silence

With the voices I hear

Through guitars and fiddles, that are you.

 

AUGUST 5, 2005