Redtree Times

I have heard the big music
And I’ll never be the same

— The Waterboys, The Big Music

I was looking for a song to play this morning and I thought about a favorite track from an album, A Pagan Place, from back in the 1980’s from the Irish group The Waterboys. I was surprised to discover that in the nearly 12 years I’ve been doing this blog that the song hasn’t somehow surfaced.

The song is The Big Music and it’s about hearing a song or piece of music that just opens you up. Shakes up your whole world and changes how you see everything in it. Maybe even alters your whole life’s path.

It’s a song that really speaks to me. Growing up in the country at a time before digital broadcasts, satellite television and streaming services, we had two TV channels so reading and listening to music filled the void for a kid who was eager to learn about the world. In retrospect, I realize now how fortunate I was.

We had a big box of singles from the late 50’s and early 60’s that had been assembled by a cousin and somehow ended up with us when he went into the Army. It had tons of good stuff including early rock from Elvis, lots of surf music from the likes of Jan and Dean and the Surfaris, goofy novelty songs, and lots of pop chart hits that feel pretty dated today, such as Heart from Kenny Chandler, a song I listened to hundreds of times back then.

Plus, my sister was an avid music fan so there were always plenty of early Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan singles on the record player. That first ringing chord of A Hard Day’s Night still thrills me in the same visceral way that I remember feeling as a kid.

Through those formative years, there were plenty of songs that hit me hard and opened up the world for me in small ways. Too many to list, actually. But I don’t know that I can mark one song that was that single defining moment. The Big Music for me.

Well, maybe it was from the first time I saw Springsteen back in 1977. The show and sound was unlike any other concert I had seen up to that point. I wrote about that show in a 2015  blog entry that mentioned the effect from his dramatic performance of the Animals‘ It’s My Life had on me.

That song and performance changed a lot of things with repercussions that still echo through my life.

When I think about it, I doubt that I would be writing this today without that song at that moment.

So, I guess that would be my Big Music moment. I wonder if everyone has a Big Music moment? Or maybe it is a book or a movie or piece of art that seemed to change them in a significant way.

Here’s the song, The Big Music, from The Waterboys.

This post ran back in 2020. I was tired this morning and, to be honest, just felt like hearing and sharing this song. The fact that there was already a blogpost about it was a bit of serendipity. Sitting here in the early m0rning dark of a cold Sunday morning, a little serendipity feels like a king’s ransom.

Certainly more than I had expected. That’s always good enough for me.