BOSTON (LOGAN) to DETROIT (DTW) – APRIL 4 -- “Lord, how long have I got to keep on running? All I know, since you’ve been gone, feel like I’m drowning in a river… drowning in a river of tears.”
- EC
Every once in a while, music moves me to tears.
Eric Clapton holds the indoor record for driving that emotional road from my gut with a right-hand turn towards the golf ball-sized lump in my throat, merging through the highway paved by my heart and soul.
The second half of “Layla” frequently stirs up my emotional rescue and, quite frankly, I don’t think you are human if the segue of Tears in Heaven to River of Tears doesn’t make you sob like a baby.
If that doesn’t do the trick, ask yourself a quick question? “Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?”
The Concert for New York brought on a different set of emotions after the horror of September 11, 2001. That night – October 20, 2001, if I remember correctly, was the greatest night in the history of Madison Square Garden. It gave all of us the power to climb out of the terrible six-foot deep funk of human loss and terror on USA soil. Adam Sandler taught us that it was okay to laugh again while Pete, Zach Starkey and The Who blew the roof off the joint by playing their three very best rock and roll songs before 19,000+ first responders and their loyal brothers and sisters called the citizens of New York City and the world.
If you didn’t cry at the Concert for New York, you simply had no heart or soul.
Now, if that isn’t enough to set you off, remember back to November of 2001 when U2 played MSG and projected the name of every lost soul from the flights, Pentagon and WTC as they played One. I remember trying to count the names as they scrolled down the projection screen, but couldn’t keep my composure after hitting 244, 245, 246 and I totally lost it on the shoulder of one of my very best friends in the world, Howie Singer who had to hold me for a good five minutes. Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry followed that up by playing the same gig at the February, 2002 NFL Super Bowl halftime.
“Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame
You say...
One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it.”
- U2
The great thing about music is the fact that it brings out the very best in each if us, along with the different emotions from every listener at different times for different reasons. And, sometimes, it happens when you least expect it. Guess what? It happened to me last night as I watched Derek Trucks play at the new House of Blues in Boston.
Everything was just fine and dandy. After a long day of work, I settled into a comfy chair in a back room at the venue and sipped an ice-cold refreshment to sooth my parched throat and stressed-out mind. The DTB, often accompanied by the great Susan Tedeschi, rocked a packed concert hall– (yes, let me state for the record a PACKED to the brim house) with a set list of perfection.
But, then Derek had to go and do it. He had to take us on a little roller coaster ride and he did it with a song that we all know and love but would never even dream of playing at a rock show, nevermind attempt to play it on a guitar. Derek went out there and played Rogers and Hammerstein’s “These are a few of my favorite things,” which was made famous by Julie Andrews’ rendition in the Sound of Music.
Trucks’ performance, quite honestly, was the most amazing music act I have ever seen and possibly the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed in my life. It was certainly the greatest interpretation of a song that I’ve ever heard in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment