Etymology

Middle English musik, from Anglo-French musike, from Latin musica, from Greek mousikē any art presided over by the Muses, especially music, from feminine of mousikos of the Muses, from Mousa Muse

This blog thought started today while I was driving around and listening to the Beach Boys channel on SiriusXM in the car. One of my very favorite songs of theirs (and that’s a very tough choice) is “Add Some Music” from seriously overlooked Sunflower album. It says a lot about how ever present music is. One of my favorite parts about 2/3 of the way in:

“Music….When you’re alone….is like a companion….For your lonely soul “

As I was driving around doing some errands I started to think if there was ever a time where I could not relate some moment of my life to music and the answer was a resounding NO.

As a very young boy, with the TV being the babysitter of choice, I would watch “Your Hit Parade” (google it kids) with incredible fascination. There was music everywhere. My mom’s dad was a big opera fan and would, after an appropriate amount of wine, break into song. He and my grandmother lived in the Belmont area of the Bronx and we spent just about every Sunday with them the sound of Doo-Wop was everywhere back then.

Jump to the 60’s…Dick Clark, Hullabaloo, Where The Action Is, Ed Sullivan, Hollywood Palace, Sing along with Mitch, and on and on, never mind the jingles, On the radio it was the WMCA Good Guys, and WA(Beetle)C on the AM side and eventually WNEW-FM.

Vinyl gave way to 8 track tapes, which gave way to cassettes which were replaced by CDs and now it’s simply electronic streaming.

Music was going to change the world in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Disco, Heavy Metal, Grunge, Hip-Hop, et al as the decades moved on.

One of the songs that came on as I was driving was “Heroes and Villains” and that took me directly back to a time sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch in Far Rockaway when it was released with great fanfare. I can smell the salt water and feel the ocean breeze coming down the street as I type this.

I can’t imagine a day without music, let alone a life without music. I would love to have the talent to be able to play or at least the talent to be able to write a song (at least the lyrics). Sadly I have neither of those talents, but that doesn’t make me appreciate it any less.

As Brian Wilson, Joe Knott and Mike Love so eloquently put it:

The world could come together as one
If everybody under the sun
Add some music to your day