Music

I’ve enjoyed Simon and Garfunkel’s music for a good part of my life, have a couple of their albums (e.g. Greatest Hits) and also several of Paul Simon’s (why wasn’t Art Garfunkel able to have a solo career?) after they split.  Recently, after not listening to them for a while, I’ve come back to them with fresh ears as well as old memories.  It’s because of my grandson, who at 3 years old, can sing most of The Boxer and Sounds of Silence while adding in some of the instrumentation with his voice.

He recently did his busker performance of those two songs along with some other music, on Skype for me.  I knew most of the words of Sounds of Silence myself once and have been brushing up on it and other songs, since he performed, listening over and over to my Greatest Hits album and singing along (loudly in my living room by myself).  I have to be prepared so maybe we can sing a duet next time.

A lot of my favourite songs are from the movie “The Graduate” although some also are on the Bookends album.  The music and the words are timeless, could be written about now as easily as the late 1960’s.  They bring back those feelings of youth and idealism, hope, and determination to improve the world.   I think they did help to shape my attitude to the world around me, to how I live my life and what I still believe are the important issues. 

Every generation has its own songs.  I’m not really up on what the top music is these days, though one can’t help but hear about the singers who are making the big money.  Many of them don’t seem very memorable to me, or very deep in terms of their music.  That could just be age speaking though.  My parents didn’t like some of the music I listened to, so maybe it’s a function of generational differences.  Though I do remember a period in the late 50’s and early 60’s when the music was pretty lame and tame  (Kookie, Kookie, Lend me Your Comb).   Perhaps we’re going through a musical slump similar to that time.  Though there seems to be a lot more music and musicians out there than 50 years ago, so probably if I took the time I could find current young musicians to like.

Music can move us, lift us out of a bad mood, make us want to dance, make us think.  I want my grandson to continue to hear that kind of music and take joy in it, whether it be music of the past, or of the present and future.