If you find yourself on a warm summer evening in lovely Eastpointe Michigan, what should you do?
Head over to the Civic Center and enjoy one of the fine concerts. It doesn’t have to be one that Carl and I play; any of them really.
Why not?
After all music is one of the most universal ways of communicating. Feelings of excitement, happiness, loneliness and joy can all be gathered and written into a song.
With the right melody, any emotion can be expressed and communicated in music.
Time has the ability to stand still during a song as well. How many songs do we hear, and know the exact time and place we were when we first heard them?
Music that has the ability to awaken many other pent-up emotions we felt forever lost as well.
All these things await us when we hear live music.
Music is one of the great gathering tools we have as an society. It draws people together from all walks of life to revel in a common unity.
Music crosses all boundaries and socioeconomic barriers to reach deep inside us and bond us forever.
And in another way, music, while being extremly inclusive, can also be fiercely personal.
There are also melodies that many diverse ethnic groups hold passionatly as their own. A hold-back to many years of cultural values and heritage. Those cherished feelings and traditions are then woven into a tapestry called music and shared in song.
This is the great power of music.
Music has the potency and ability to move people to think and feel in ways they never thought possible. To tell stories, to communicate feelings and passions that while being extremely personal, can be so utterly common that they give us a shared belief and ideology.
Music can lift us while at the same time move us to tears.
Music can mean a thousand different things to a million ears, all listening to the same one melody.
It was that wonder that I experienced, first on a late Sunday evening in 1964, when Ed Sullivan introduced The Beatles for the first time to an American audience.
And then again in 1970, when I saw Woodstock at the Jewel theatre in downtown Mount Clemens.
As I watched and listened to artist after artist singing/communicating their passions and feelings to over 400,000 people who were moved as one, I suddenly and forever knew what I wanted to do with my life.
Now, I’m not for a moment comparing our little concert this past Wednesday to Woodstock, or the Beatles . . . I’m just saying, that it doesn’t matter who the artist is; it is the music that is the star. (A concept that so many divas seems to forget).
Music is what gets people out. It gathers them together in ways they might not even realize.
Music is the reason.
What I am saying, is that it really doesn’t matter who is playing, come out and listen. You will be so glad you did.
On this Wednesday night we were booked to play oldies and classic top forty music. We played songs by the Temptations, Jimmy Buffet, Garth Brooks Bob Marley and Looking Glass.
We chatted with the audience and tried to get all of their favorite requests played.
This year, there were comedians joining us as well.
One opened the show, one played during a rare intermission and another closed. It was a brave experiment by the people at Eastpointe and one that might blossom into an annual format.
The evening flew by, as it always does. Soon we are packed up and on our way to another concert.
Maybe just maybe, we inspired someone in the audience to pick up a guitar or harmonica and carry the musical torch of song that was handed to us, by the Beatles on that February evening so long ago.
Jus maybe . . .
Rb
