I Have Lived This Song A Few Times

I Have Lived This Song A Few Times

I was dreaming
of a life
I knew
somewhere far away.

Hearing music from inside
somewhere in my head.

Out of the blue
the music came crashing.

Taking me back
to a song I've lived in before.

Fast forward
several hundred songs later.

I met Gina in a small café
just before her shift ended.

I had breakfast
and played some tunes
on the juke box.

Early Summer 1981
music was the sound track
as always.

The music muses
would lead to music of my own

The café
which still stands
on Cheshire Bridge Road
under a new name and owner.

The 1960s decoration
now ersatz
retro
fake.

Back then it was Majestic Diner
like right out of a Scorcese movie
and I loved
the little juke box flip boxes
at each booth.

Everyday the playlist
George Harrison's
"All Those Years Ago"
and "You Better You Bet"
from The Who.

A couple more random choices
"Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places"
or
"Just Like Starting Over".

I'd just escaped the boarding house
playing reggae
new wave
old school
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue".

Then I wake up from a dream
into another dream.

The first music
I really remember
was what I thought
was "Devil music".

A loud organ based
instrumental
that echoed through the house
scaring the daylights out of me.

This was around the time
winter of 1963
I had a bad ear infection
pounding pain.

I thought that beat
was the Devil's footsteps.

Jump cut a year or so
to 1964
and I had discovered
Hank Williams.

The bio-pic
which came out in 1964.

When Hank died
in the end of the movie
it was the first time
I saw my father cry.

Hank Williams somehow
connected in my mythology
with Popeye
strange but true.

Television music
theme songs and commercials
the Maxwell House Coffee theme.

Music in the air
music everywhere.

Sean Connery came on the scene
the world of Goldfingers
and Odd Jobs.

The great guitar riff
on the Bond theme.

Connery led the way
for The Beatles
in the capsule reality
of my childhood.

On Olive Street
Curtis Street
and over to Edgewood..

"Yeah Yeah Yeah"
became the catch phrase
and holding hands
was a pretty big score
in 1965.

Late 1965
I saw and heard
The Beatles come alive
on television
in living back and white.

Next door with Candace and Tina
as they pretended
to swoon and faint.

From The Beatles
I learned
the goal was
to follow the sun.

Later
like the Rolling Stones sang
"The sunshine bores
the daylights out of me."

Make a glorious exit
with the sunset.

To the present
where one song
holds many memories.

I have lived this song
a few times
side stepped
behind the rhymes.

-Will Dockery (9-6-20)