Musical Memories

Memories are interesting entities. In and of themselves they exist, in part, as a trailing reminder or constant companion of our personal ties to people, places, experiences, images, sounds, ideas, and dreams.

Musical memories tend to embody how each of these is influenced by and connected to music. Music is very powerful because it connects to the brain, the heart, and the spirit. It connects to the brain on many levels because it has the power to create and destroy neurons in the brain. It connects to the heart because our heart rate can accelerate, decelerate, or become irregular according to the rhythm of the music. The spirit, however, connects to music on a deeper level because our spirits are continually touched by the power of music on our memories. We may hear a song that moves us and remember the first time we heard that music. The words may carry a particular importance to us personally because they remind us of friends, family, and personal experiences.

I remember one particular musical memory that stands out to me. As a teenager, I remember being on a trip with my family. My father was driving and my mother was in the passenger seat. A song came on the radio and my father's eyes began to get teary. The song was "Leader of the Band" by Dan Fogelberg. The lyrics of the song touched my father and he began to openly cry. My father, I assume, thought all of us children were asleep. As he drove he held my mother's hand and they listened to the lyrics of the song. These are the lyrics of the song:

An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work and his heart was known to none --
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay

A quiet man of music denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once but his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love through discipline, a thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand.

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band.

My brothers' lives were different for they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St. Paul
And I'm in Colorado when I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life I've chose and come to know so well.

I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go --
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
And, pap, I don't think I said I love you near enough --

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band
I am the living legacy to the leader of the band.

What beautiful lyrics. My father, I assume, was thinking about his father as he heard the lyrics to the song. A memory had been created in his mind and images came flooding in to bring his emotions to the surface. Whenever I hear that song, memories come flooding into my mind and I see my father driving, lost in thought, and remembering.

Written by Jerald M. Simon
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